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.M AW 






TO 

SIR PETER MURRAY THREIPLAND, 

OF FINGASK, BARONET, 

REPRESENTATIVE OF A FAMILY WHICH 

CAN STILL VIEW WITH GENEROUS REGRET 

THE CAUSE FOR WHICH FORMER GENERATIONS 

GLADLY SUFFERED, 

THIS 

WORK IS RESPECTFULLY 

AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. 

The present work appeared originally in ' Constable's Miscel- 
lany' in 1827. The principal sources of information which then 
existed for a history of the civil war of 1745, were the contem- 
porary public journals, Mr Home's work (valuable at least for 
its reports of what the author himself witnessed), the Lockhart 
and Culloden Papers, the Chevalier Johnstone's Memoirs, and 
the still fresh traditions of the people. Since from these docu- 
ments the author constructed the first edition of his narrative, a 
greater quantity of valuable materials has become accessible than 
during eighty preceding years. The personal narratives of two 
distinguished actors, Lord Elcho and Mr Maxwell of Kirkconnel, 
have been in part or wholly given to the world. In Dr James 
Browne's ■ History of the Highlands and Highland Clans,' there 
appeared extensive and very important excerpts from the great 
collection in the possession of the British sovereign, styled ' The 
Stuart Papers.' To this valuable set of excerpts, Lord Mahon 
has made additions in his ■ History of Great Britain between the 
Peace of Utrecht and that of Aix-la-Chapelle.' I was myself so 
fortunate, in 1832, as to become possessed of an extensive collec- 
tion of papers which had been gathered, early in the present 
century, by the late Sir Henry Steuart of AUanton, with a view 
to his composing a History of the Efforts in behalf of the House 
of Stuart from the Revolution downwards. Amongst these was 
an assemblage of memoirs, notes, letters, and other memora- 
bilia respecting the insurrection of 1745 and its actors, which 
had been formed with great labour, during the twenty years 
ensuing upon the event, by the Rev. Robert Forbes, Episcopal 
minister at Leith, and ultimately (titular) Bishop of Orkney. 
From Sir Henry's collection, which eventually became mine, I 
published a selection in 1834, under the title of Jacobite Memoirs 



VI PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. 

of the Rebellion of 1745-6; but by far the greater part of the 
more valuable documents still remained in manuscript. 

In the present edition of my own narrative, advantage has 
been taken of the abundance of new materials thus placed at 
command. So ample were these, and so great were the changes 
consequently required in the fabric of the narrative, that the 
present might almost be described as a new work. That part, 
in particular, which records the singular adventures of the 
Prince after the battle of Culloden, is much more copious, and 
also more strictly correct, than it was before, chiefly in conse- 
quence of the special pains which Bishop Forbes took to ascer- 
tain all the particulars of those adventures from the gentlemen 
and others who had been concerned in them. The work is now 
submitted, in its extended and corrected form, not without a 
hope that it will be found to contain sufficient information to 
satisfy all reasonable curiosity upon the subject. 

Edinburgh, February 24, 1840. 



GENEALOGICAL AND HISTORICAL 
INTRODUCTION. 

James, sixth of Scotland and first of England, was the common 
progenitor of the two families whose contentions for the throne 
of Great Britain form the subject of this work. He was suc- 
ceeded, at his death in 1625, by his eldest surviving son Charles. 

Charles I., after a reign of twenty-three years, the latter por- 
tion of which had been spent in war with a party of his subjects, 
perished on the scaffold in 1649. 

Charles II., eldest son of Charles I., lived in exile for eleven 
years after the death of his father, during which time the govern- 
ment was vested first in a Parliament, and afterwards in a Pro- 
tectorate. He was at length placed upon the throne, May 1660. 
This event is known in British history by the title of ' the 
Restoration.' Charles died without legitimate issue in 1685, and 
was succeeded by his brother James, who had previously been 
entitled Duke of York. 

James II. was fifty-three years of age when he mounted the 
throne. In his youth he had, as Admiral of England, shown some 
talent for business, and considerable skill in naval affairs ; but 
during his reign he manifested a want of judgment which would 
almost indicate premature dotage. Having been converted to the 
Roman Catholic faith, he entered into the spirit of it with the 
zeal natural to a weak mind, and ventured upon some steps 
which impressed his subjects with the conviction that he wished 
to place this religion on a par with Protestantism, if not to restore 
it to its ancient supremacy. Thus he alienated the affections of 
the people, but more especially of the clergy, who were otherwise 
disposed to have been his most zealous friends. The compliance 
of bad judges, and some imperfections of the British constitution, 
left it in his power to take the most arbitrary measures for the 
accomplishment of his designs ; and he attempted to establish as 
a maxim, that he could do whatever he pleased by a proclama- 



Vlll GENEALOGICAL AND HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 

tion of his own, without the consent of Parliament. Finally, his 
obstinacy and infatuation rendered it necessary for all parties of 
the state to seek his deposition. A secret coalition of Whigs 
and Tories resolved to call in the assistance of William Prince 
of Orange, nephew and son-in-law to the king. William landed 
upon the south coast of England with an army of sixteen thou- 
sand men, partly his own native subjects, and partly English 
refugees, November 5, 1688. As he proceeded to London, James 
was deserted by his army, his friends, and even his own children ; 
and in a confusion of mind, the result of fear and offended feel- 
ings, he retired to France. William, at the head of a powerful 
force, took possession of London. A Convention-Parliament then 
declared that James had abdicated the throne, and resolved to 
offer the crown to William and his consort Mary. In British 
history, this event is termed * the Eevolution.' 

William III., son of Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., and 
who had married his cousin Mary, eldest daughter of James II., 
thus assumed the crown, in company with his consort ; while 
King James remained in exile in France. Mary died in 1695, 
and King William then became sole monarch. In consequence 
of a fall from his horse, he died in 1701, leaving no issue. 

Anne, second daughter of King James II, was then placed 
upon the throne. James meanwhile died in France, leaving 
a son, James, born in England June 10, 1688, the heir of his 
unhappy fortunes. This personage, known in history by the 
epithet of the Pretender, and less invidiously by his incognito 
title, the Chevalier St George, continued an exile in France, 
supported by his cousin Louis XIV., and by the subsidies of his 
English adherents. Anne, after a reign of thirteen years, dis- 
tinguished by military and literary glory, died without surviv- 
ing issue, August 1, 1714. During the life of this sovereign, the 
crown had been destined, by act of Parliament, to the nearest 
Protestant heir, Sophia, Electress of Hanover, daughter of 
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the daughter of King James VL 
Sophia having predeceased Queen Anne, it descended of course 
to her son George, Elector of Hanover, who accordingly came 
over to England and assumed the sovereignty, to the exclusion 
of his cousin the Chevalier. 

George I. was scarcely seated on the throne, when (1715) an 
insurrection was raised against him by the friends of his rival, 
now generally known as the Jacobite party. This rebellion was 



GENEALOGICAL AND HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. IX 

suppressed ; and George I. continued to reign, almost without 
further disturbance, till his death in 1727. 

George II. acceded to the crown on the death of his father. 
Meanwhile the Chevalier St George had married Clementina, 
granddaughter of John Sobieski, the heroic King of Poland ; 
by this lady he had two sons — 1st, Charles Edward Lewis 
Cassimir, born December 31, 1720, and, 2d, Henry Benedict, 
born 1725, afterwards well known by the name of Cardinal 
de York. James was himself a man of weak, though mild and 
virtuous character; but the blood of Sobieski seems to have 
descended to his eldest son, whose boldness, as displayed in 
1745-6, did everything but retrieve the fortunes of his family. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Chapter i. — prince Charles's voyage and landing, 13 

n. — THE HIGHLANDERS, . . .27 

TIL — THE GATHERING, . . . 36 

IV. — PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNMENT, . . 44 

v. — Charles's descent upon the lowlands, 52 
vi. — alarm of edinburgh, . . 63 
vii. — Charles's march upon Edinburgh, . 68 

vm. capture of edinburgh, . . 74 

ix. — prince Charles's entry into Edinburgh, 85 

x. — cope's preparations, . . .90 

XI. — THE PRINCE'S MARCH TO PRESTON, . 96 

Xn. — THE BATTLE OF PRESTON, . . . ] 02 

XLU. — PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD, . 117 

XIV. — GATHERING AT EDINBURGH, . .129 

XV. — INVASION OF ENGLAND, . . 143 

XVI. — RETREAT TO SCOTLAND, . . .163 

XVH. — PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK, 181 

XVIH. — THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK, . . 196 

XIX. — ARRIVAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND, 210 

XX. — MARCH TO THE NORTH, . . .218 

XXI. — PROCEEDINGS IN THE NORTH, . . 226 

XXII. — PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN, 237 



XU CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter xxiii. — battle of culloden, . . . 249 
xxiv. — transactions immediately after the 

battle of culloden, . . 257 

xxv. — suppression of the insurrection, . 266 
xxvi. — Charles's wanderings — the long 

ISLAND, .... 282 

xxvn. — Charles's wanderings — skye, . 296 

xxvm. — Charles's wanderings — the mainland, 329 

xxix. — trials and executions, . . 375 

XXX. — PRINCE CHARLES IN FRANCE, . 397 
XXXI. — MEASURES FOR PREVENTION OF FURTHER 

DISTURBANCES, . . . 409 

XXXH. — SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES, 417 

APPENDIX, . . . . . 437 



HISTORY 

OF THE 

REBELLION OE 1745-6. 



CHAPTEE I. 
prince Charles's voyage and landing. 

Guard.— Qui est la ? 

Puc— Pa'isans, pauvres gens de France. 

King Henry VI. 

The idea of an insurrection in favour of the exiled house 
of Stuart, though, from the Revolution, it had never been 
for a moment out of the thoughts of the Jacobite party, re- 
mained, during the long* peace which preceded 1739, in that 
state of dormancy which usually befalls the most deeply- 
cherished schemes, when there is no hope of their being 
immediately carried into execution. When, however, Bri- 
tain became engaged in war with Spain, and not long after 
mingled in the general conflict of European powers which 
took place in consequence of the exclusion of the house 
of Austria from the imperial dignity, the friends of the 
Stuarts eagerly embraced the belief that a fitting time had 
at length arrived for striking a blow in behalf of legiti- 
macy. They had every reason to believe that France, in 
particular, if not also Spain, would grant them the assist- 
ance of an invading armament, under favour of which they 
might themselves take up arms. What made their pro- 
spects the more cheerful was, that a new promise had 
sprung up in the exiled family, in the person of the old 
chevalier's eldest son, Charles Edward, whose character 
was understood to comprehend all that was graceful in a 



14 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

prince, united with the spirit of one destined to be a mili- 
tary hero. In this respect they stood in a better position 
than they had ever done before; for the two preceding 
generations of the dethroned family had possessed no per- 
sonal qualities that could afford much aid to the cause. 

So early, therefore, as 1740, associations had begun to be 
formed by the Scottish partisans of the Stuarts, engaging 
to rise in arms, provided that competent assistance should 
be sent from abroad. 1 At the end of 1743, the French 
court actually entered into the design of an invasion of 
Britain in behalf of the Stuarts, and sent to Eome for the 
young chevalier, that he might be ready to accompany 
it, the chief command of the troops being designed for the 
celebrated Marshal Saxe. Charles instantly proceeded to 
Paris, and in the latter part of February 1744, a fleet was 
ready to sail, with an army of 15,000 men on board. The 
British government was thrown into great alarm, for their 
shores were comparatively unprotected, and the people were 
in a state of violent discontent. A small fleet was mustered 
under Sir John Norris, and sent to watch the French at 
Dunkirk. What this aged admiral could scarcely have 
done, was done by a storm, which drove the French vessels 
from their moorings, destroying some, and irretrievably 
damaging others, This, with the attacks of the British 
vessels, so far deranged the scheme, that the French minis- 
try determined on abandoning it. The mortification of 
Charles was great ; and with his characteristic boldness he 
actually proposed to his father's veteran partisan, Earl 
Marischal, to set sail in a herring-boat for Scotland, in 
order to put himself at the head of his friends — believing, 
apparently, that his own presence as their leader was alone 
wanting for success. The earl of course refused to sanction 
such a scheme ; and Charles, after an ineffectual endeavour 
to be allowed by his father to serve in the French army, 
retired to an obscure part of France, to wait for better 
times. 

At the end of the year, and in the early part of 1745, he 
used every exertion, by means of his emissaries, and by 
personal solicitations, to induce the French court to renew 
the enterprise ; but without success. It appears that some 

1 In the year 1740, seven persons of rank entered into an association of this 
kind ; namely, the Earl of Traquair ; his hrother , John Stuart ; Lord Lovat ; 
James Drummond, commonly called Duke of Perth ; Lord John Drum- 
mond, uncle of James Drummond ; Sir James Camphell of Auchinhreck ; 
and Cameron, younger of Locheil ; most of these "being persons possessing 
influence in the Highlands. Many others afterwards entered into similar 
engagements. 



I 



prince Charles's voyage and landing. 15 

of the Protestant powers in alliance with Louis had remon- 
strated against his giving aid to the Catholic party in Bri- 
tain : every effort, they said, ought to be concentrated on 
the seat of war in Flanders. 1 Charles, therefore, found 
himself coldly treated in Paris. It is remarkable that he 
was not even introduced to the king — nor had he ever 
this honour until after his return from Scotland. Yet, for 
the sake of an object to which he had devoted his whole 
affections, he patiently endured this contumely, and all the 
other distresses of his situation, among which the low in- 
trigues of some of his immediate followers were not the 
least. Writing to his father January 3, 1745, when about 
to retire, for reasons of policy, to a dull place in the country, 
he says — ' This I do not regret in the least, as long as I 
think it of service to our cause. I would put myself in a 
tub, like Diogenes, if necessary. 7 ' 2 Afterwards (March 7), 
when contemplating some preparations for the expedition 
with his own means, he writes to the same person — c I wish 
ou would pawn all my jewels, for on this side of the water 
should wear them with a very sore heart, thinking that 
there might be a better use for them ; so that, in an ur- 
gent necessity, I may have a sum which can be of use for 
the cause. 7 Of another sum which he had obtained from 
his father, and expended in the purchase of broadswords, 
he says in the same letter — ■' Rather than want it, I would 
have pawned my shirt : it is but for such uses that I shall 
ever trouble you with requests for money ; it will never be 
for jjlate or fine clothes, hit for arms and ammunition, or 
other things which tend to what I am come about to this 
country. 73 It is generally believed that the victory, such 
as it was, gained by the French over the British army at 
Fontenoy in May, completed the resolution of France not 
to fit out a new armament for the young chevalier, a diver- 
sion of the enemy by such means being now considered un- 
necessary. 

When Charles was at length despairing of aid from this 
source, the very sense of resentment seems to have acted as 
an additional stimulus to throw him back upon the romantic 
design first propounded to Lord Marischal. He had great 
confidence in the enthusiasm of his British, and more parti- 
cularly his Scottish partisans, some of whom had requested 
him to come to them, if he only could bring a sufficiency of 
arms and money. He thought if he could once raise his 

1 Memoires de Noailles, vi. 22, quoted in Lord Mahon's History of England, 
iii. 335. 

2 Extracts from Stuart Papers, in Lord Mahon's History. 3 Ibid. 



16 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

standard in Scotland, his friends would flock to it, and that 
at this particular juncture, when the British army had just 
sustained a notable defeat, and the country was drained of 
troops, he should be able at least to keep his ground until 
foreign aid should arrive, if not to do something* which 
should make that aid more likely to come. The loud discon- 
tents expressed in Britain respecting the war and the exist- 
ing ministry, held out additional encouragement. He there- 
fore determined upon a secret voyage to Scotland, no matter 
how few might share in the danger, or how slenderly pro- 
vided he might be with money or with military stores. 
Early in June, we find him at the Chateau de Navarre, near 
Evreux, writing a letter to his father, not to ask his sanc- 
tion for the projected enterprise, but to inform him that, 
before the writing could be in his hands, that enterprise 
would be commenced. i I am to tell you/ says he, c what 
will be a great surprise to you. I have been, above six 
months ago, invited by our friends to go to Scotland, and 
carry what money and arms I could conveniently get ; this 
being, they are fully persuaded, the only way of restoring 
you to the crown, and them to their liberties. ... After 
such scandalous usage as I have received from the French 
court, even had I not given my word to do so, or got so 
many encouragements from time to time as I have had, I 
should have been obliged, in honour and for my own repu- 
tation, to have flung myself into the hands of my friends, 
and die with them, rather than live longer in such a miser- 
able way here, or be obliged to return to Home, which would 
be just giving up all hopes. I cannot but mention a parable 
here, which is : a horse that is to be sold, if [when] spurred, 
[he] does not skip, or show some sign of life, nobody would 
care to have him even for nothing ; just so my friends would 
care very little to have me, if, after such usage, which all 
the world is sensible of, I should not show that I have life 
in me. Your majesty cannot disapprove a son's following 
the example of his father. You yourself did the like in the 
year 1715 ; but the circumstances now are indeed very dif- 
ferent, by being much more encouraging. ... I have been 
obliged to steal off, without letting* the king of France so 
much as suspect it ; for which I make a proper excuse in 
my letter to him, by saying it was a great mortification to 
me never to be able to speak and open my heart to him ; 
that this thing was of such a nature that it could not be 
communicated by any of the ministers, but to himself alone, 
in whom, after God Almighty, my resting lies, and that 
the least help would make my affair infallible. If I had let 



prince Charles's voyage and landing. 17 

the French court know this beforehand, it might have had 
all these bad effects : — 1st, It is possible they might have 
stopped me, having a mind to keep measures with the 
elector ;* and then, to cover it over, they would have made 
a merit of it to you, by saying they had hindered me from 
doing a wild and desperate thing : 2dly, My being invited 
by my friends would not be believed, or at least would have 
made little impression on the French court. 

i I have/ he continues, c sent Stafford to Spain, and ap- 
pointed Sir Thomas Geraldine to demand succours in my 
name, to complete the work, to whom I sent letters for the 
king and queen, written in the most engaging terms to the 
same purpose. Let what will happen, the stroke is struck, 
and I have taken a firm resolution to conquer or to die, and 
to stand my ground as long as I shall have a man remaining 
with me. . . . Whatever happens unfortunate to me, cannot 
but be the strongest engagement to the French court to 
pursue your cause. Now, if I were sure they were capable 
of any sensation of this kind, if I did not succeed, I would 
perish, as Curtius did, to save my country and make it 
happy ; it being an indispensable duty on me as far as lies 
in my power. ... I write this from Navarre, but it will 
not be sent off till I am on shipboard. ... I should think 
it proper (if your majesty pleases) to put myself at his lioli- 
ness 7 s feet, asking his blessing on this occasion ; but what 
I chiefly ask is your own, which I hope wdll procure me 
that of God Almighty, upon my endeavours to serve you, 
my family, and my country.' 2 

One Waters, a banker in Paris, had lent Charles 60,000 
livres, which he had employed in paying off the debts he 
incurred at Paris during the past winter. The younger 
Waters, also a banker, now advanced to him 120,000 livres, 
with which he bought 1500 fusees, 1800 broadswords, and 
a considerable quantity of gunpowder, ball, flints, dirks, 
and other articles, including 20 small field -pieces. Mr 

1 The king of Great Britain was, by the Stuarts and their partisans, only 
allowed to be elector of Hanover. 

2 This remarkable letter is printed in the appendix to Lord Mahon's History, 
from the Stuart Papers. ' Charles's letters,' says this writer, ' which I have 
seen among the Stuart Papers, are written in a large rude rambling hand, like 
a schoolboy's. In spelling, they are still more deficient. With him "humour," 
for example, becomes umer ; the weapon he knew so well how to wield is a 
sord ; and even his own father's name appears under the alias of gems. Nor 
are these errors confined to a single language : who— to give an instance from 
his French — would recognise a hunting-knife in cooto de chas ? I can 
therefore readily believe that, as Dr King assures us, he knew very little of 
the history or constitution of England. But the letters of Charles, while they 
prove his want of education, no less clearly display his natural powers, great 
energy of character, and great warmth of heart.' 

VOL. V. B 



18 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Walsh, a merchant in Nantes, agreed to convey him to the 
coast of Scotland in a brig* of 18 guns, which he had fitted 
out to cruise against the British trade ; at the same time 
Mr Rutledge, a friend of Walsh, obtained from the French 
court the services of the Elizabeth, a vessel of 68 guns 
and 700 men, which was to cruise on the coast of Scotland. 
Some obscurity rests on the point ; yet it is clear that the 
Prince had the use of this latter vessel, to carry his stores, 
and convoy his own ship, without the knowledge of the 
French government. While the preparations were making 
at Nantes, the few gentlemen who had agreed to accompany 
the Prince lodged in different parts of the town, and when 
they met in public, took no notice of each other, the better 
to conceal their design. 1 They were seven in number ; the 
most important being the Marquis of Tulli bar dine, who, 
having been concerned in the affair of 1715, was attainted, 
and thus prevented from succeeding to his father's title and 
estates as Duke of Athole, which were now enjoyed by his 
next younger brother. The rest were — Sir Thomas She- 
ridan, who had been the Prince's preceptor ; Sir John Mac- 
donald, an officer in the Spanish service ; Mr Kelly, an 
English clergyman, who had been concerned in the Bishop 
of Rochester's plot in 17'2*2; O'Sullivan, an Irish officer in the 
French service; Francis Strickland, an English gentleman; 
and Mr iEneas Macdonald, banker in Paris, a younger 
brother of Macdonald of Kinlochmoidart. Lord Mahon 
says very justly, ' that the charm of this romantic enter- 
prise seems singularly heightened, when we iind, from the 
secret papers now disclosed, that it was undertaken not 
only against the British government, but without, and in 
spite of, the French.' 

At seven of the evening of the 22d of June, old style, 2 
the Prince embarked at St Nazaire, in the mouth of the 
Loire, on board Walsh's little vessel, named the Doutelle, 
attended by his seven friends, besides one Buchanan, a 
messenger. Proceeding to Belleisle, he was there detained 
for some days, in expectation of the Elizabeth. Since the 
letter to his father before quoted, he had written again : 
1 1 made my devotions/ he says, * on Pentecost day, re- 
commending myself particularly to the Almighty on this 
occasion to guide and direct me, and to continue to me 
always the same sentiments ; which are, rather to suffer any- 

1 Jacobite Memoirs, from the papers of Bishop Forbes, p. 2. 

2 Such was tbe day in British reckoning, old style being still used there. 
In France, the day was esteemed as the 3d of July. Old style is here preferred, 
as that used throughout the whole of the ensuing narrative. 



prince Charles's voyage and landing. 19 

thing than fail in any of my duties? He afterwards wrote 
his father's secretary, Mr Edgar — ' I hope in God we shall 
soon meet, which I am resolved shall not be but at home ; ' 
meaning in the seat of his father's government. 1 His last 
words to the same gentleman in a postscript, dated the 12th 
July (N.S.), were — c After having waited a week here, not 
without a little anxiety, we have at last got the escort I 
expected, which is just arrived ; namely, a ship of 68 
guns, and 700 men aboard. I am, thank God, in perfect 
health, but have been a little sea-sick; and expect to be 
more so ; but it does not keep me much a-bed, for I find the 
more I struggle against it the better.' None of these letters 
were sent off till after he had finally quitted the shores of 
France. He had acted in like manner by his Scottish 
friends, sending Mr Murray of Broughton to apprise them 
of his intention of sailing, but too late to allow of their 
sending any answer that could be expected to reach him 
before he should have set sail. The Scottish gentlemen 
consequently met in great anxiety, to deliberate on the 
message, when it was agreed by all, excepting the Duke of 
Perth, that the scheme was the extreme of rashness, and 
Mr Murray was appointed by them to watch for the Prince 
in the West Highlands, and warn him off the coast. It 
would thus appear that Charles was, in some measure, 
under a false impression as to the eagerness of his Scottish 
friends for the undertaking. Probably only a very few 
had invited him to come, no matter how attended or pro- 
vided. Murray actually waited during the whole month 
of June upon the west coast, when, finding that the Prince 
did not arrive, and conceiving that the scheme had been 
given up, he returned to his house in Peeblesshire. To the 
friends of the cause in England, it does not appear that any 
message was sent by the Prince before his voyage. 

All things being in readiness, the expedition sailed from 
Belleisle on the 2d July. Four days after, in latitude 47 
degrees 57 minutes north, and thirty-nine leagues to the 
west of the Lizard Point, an English man-of-war appeared in 
sight. D'Eau, the captain of the Elizabeth, came on board 
the Doutelle, and asked Mr Walsh to aid in attacking this 
vessel, representing that an immediate engagement might be 

1 After all that is here related of the Prince's proceedings, it seems scarcely 
necessary to allude to a letter of David Hume, in which that generally acute 
person relates an absurd story, communicated to him by Helvetius the philo- 
sopher, to the effect that Charles became faint-hearted at the point of com- 
mencing his enterprise, and had to be carried on board by his followers. The 
utter inconsistency of the tale with the above unquestionable facts, must be 
at once apparent. 



20 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the best course, as the English ship, if joined by any other of 
the same nation, would become more than a match for both 
of theirs. Mr Walsh, feeling a great responsibility as to the 
Prince's person, declined this proposal. Captain D'Eau 
then resolved to make the attack singly. The British vessel 
proved to be the Lion, of 58 guns, commanded by Captain 
Brett, an officer who had distinguished himself in Anson's 
expedition by storming Paita. The engagement between 
the two vessels lasted five hours, during which the Doutelle 
looked on from a little distance. While the fight continued, 
the Prince several times represented to Mr Walsh what 
a small assistance would serve to give the Elizabeth the 
advantage, and importuned him to engage in the action; 
but Mr Walsh positively refused, and at last desired the 
Prince not to insist any more, otherwise he would order 
him down to his cabin. 1 At the close of the action, the 
Lion sheered off like a tub upon the water, but the Elizabeth 
was unable to give it any further annoyance. The vessel 
was much damaged in the rigging, and between thirty and 
forty of the officers and men were wounded or killed, the 
captain himself being amongst the former. It therefore 
returned to France to refit, carrying with it the Prince's 
too slender stores. Charles, nevertheless, continued his 
voyage, cheering himself up with the hopes he entertained 
from the ardour of his Scottish partisans. 

In this voyage the Prince and his friends maintained a 
strict incognito, as may have been surmised from the liberty 
which Mr Walsh has just been represented as taking with 
one who considered himself as rightfully Prince Regent of 
the British dominions. Charles wore the dress of a student 
of the Scotch College at Paris, and, to conceal his person 
still more, he had allowed his beard to grow from the day 
he embarked. The vessel sailed by night without a light, 
the better to escape observation. On one occasion it was 
chased, and prepared for an action; but escaped by fast 
sailing. After some days' sailing, it approached that re- 
motest range of the Hebrides which — comprehending 
Lewis, Uist, Barra, and many others — is commonly called 
the Long Island, from its appearing at a distance to form 
a single continent. A large Hebridean eagle came and 
hovered over the vessel. It was first observed by the 
Marquis of Tullibardine, who did not at first choose to 
make any remark upon it, lest his doing so might have 
been considered superstitious ; but, some hours later, on 

1 Jacobite Memoirs. 



prince Charles's voyage and landing. 21 

returning' upon deck after dinner, seeing the eagle still 
following their course, the marquis pointed it out to the 
Prince, saying, ' Sir, this is a happy omen : the king of 
birds is come to welcome your royal highness on your 
arrival in Scotland.' 1 

They now sailed into a strait between the islands of 
Eriska and South Uist, and, observing some doubtful sails 
at a distance, made haste to land on the former island, 
carrying on shore their money, arms, and ammunition. 
The "Prince was conducted to the house of the tacksman, or 
tenant, and learned that Macdonald of Clanranald, chief of 
a branch of that great clan, and who held extensive posses- 
sions in the West Highlands and Hebrides, was upon South 
Uist, with his brother Boisdale, 2 while young Clanranald, 3 
the son of the chief, and a person in whom he had great 
confidence, was at Moidart upon the mainland. A mes- 
senger was despatched to desire an interview with Boisdale, 
and in the meantime Charles spent the night in the house 
of the tacksman. 

He returned on board his vessel next morning, and Bois- 
dale soon after came to visit him. This gentleman was 
supposed to have great influence over the mind of his elder 
brother the chief, who, on account of his advanced age and 
bad health, did not take an active part in the management 
of his own affairs. 4 Charles knew that, if Boisdale could 
be brought over to his views, the rising of the clan would 
be a matter of course. Here, however, he experienced a 
disappointment. Mr Macdonald seems to have been well 
affected to the cause, but strongly impressed with its hope- 
lessness at the present moment. He spoke in a very dis- 
couraging manner, and advised the Prince to return home. 
1 1 am come home, sir,' said Charles, ' and can entertain no 
notion of returning to the place whence I came. I am per- 
suaded that my faithful Highlanders will stand by me.' 
Boisdale said he was afraid that the contrary would be 
found the case. Charles instanced Macleod of Macleod 

1 Jacobite Memoirs, p. 9. 

2 Throughout this narrative, the custom of the country has been conformed 
to, in designating the Scottish chiefs and landed proprietors by their family 
and territorial titles. 

3 The eldest son of a Highland chief always receives his father's title, with 
the additional epithet of young; thus, for instance, young Glengarry, young 
Locheil, &c. In the Lowlands, something like the same custom did lately, 
and perhaps still does exist, though it is more common to call him the young 
laird. Ludicrous instances sometimes occur of a man being called the young 
laird, when he is in reality far advanced in life. 

4 Historical and Genealogical Account of the clan or familv of Macdonald, 
p. 159. 



22 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

and Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat, as chieftains upon 
whom he could depend. These were men who could bring' 
twelve hundred broadswords to the field. Boisdale now 
gave him the unwelcome intelligence that these gentlemen 
had not only resolved to abandon his cause, but might be 
found to act against it. To prove this, he said a messenger 
might be sent to ask them to join the proposed expedition. 
As might be expected, Charles in vain exerted his eloquence 
to induce Boisdale to engage his brother's clan. He plainly 
told the Prince that he would rather use any influence he 
had with his brother and the clan to prevent them from 
taking arms. 

Charles was greatly disconcerted at Boisdale's coldness, 
but he took care to show no symptom of depression. He 
ordered his ship to be unmoored, and set sail for the main- 
land, expressing a resolution to pursue the enterprise he 
had commenced. He carried Boisdale along* with him 
for several miles, and endeavoured, with all his eloquence, 
to make him relent and give a better answer. But Mr 
Macdonald continued to express the same unfavourable 
sentiments; and finally, descending* into his boat, which 
hung astern, he left the Prince to follow his own apparently 
hopeless course. 1 

Continuing his voyage to the mainland, it was with a 
still resolute heart that, on the 19th of July, 2 Charles cast 
anchor in Lochnanuagh, a small arm of the sea, partly 
dividing the countries of Moidart and Arisaig. The place 
which he thus chose for his disembarkation was as wild 
and desolate a scene as he could have found throughout the 
dominions of his fathers. Yet it was scarcely more unpro- 
mising than the reception he at first met with from its 
people. 

The first thing he did after casting anchor, was to send 
a boat ashore with a letter for young Clanranald, whom he 
knew to be inspired with the most enthusiastic affection to 
his cause. The young* chief did not permit him to remain 
long in suspense. Next day (the 20th) he came to Forsy, 
a small village on the shore of the estuary in which the 
Prince's vessel lay, accompanied by his kinsmen, the Lairds 
of Glenaladale and Dalily, and by another gentleman of his 
clan, who has left an intelligent journal of the subsequent 
events. 3 ' Calling for the ship's boat,' says this writer, ' we 
were immediately carried on board, our hearts bounding at 

1 History of the Rebellion, by the Rev. John Home ; Home's Works, ii. 427. 
— Jacobite Memoirs , pp. 11, 12. 

2 Lockhart Papers, ii. 479. 3 Printed in the Lockhart Papers. 



prince Charles's voyage and landing. 23 

the idea of being* at length so near our long-wished-for 
Prince. We found a large tent erected with poles upon the 
ship's deck, the interior of which was furnished with a 
variety of wines and spirits. On entering this pavilion, we 
were warmly welcomed by the Duke of Athole, to whom 
most of us had been known in the year 1715. l While we 
were conversing- with the duke, Clanranald was called 
away to see the Prince, and we were given to understand 
that we should not probably see his royal highness that 
evening.' Clanranald, being introduced into Charles's pre- 
sence, proceeded to assure him that there was no possi- 
bility, under the circumstances, of taking up arms with 
any chance of success. In this he was joined by his rela- 
tion, Macdonald of Kinlochmoidart, whom Mr Home has 
associated with him in the following romantic anecdote, 
though the journalist does not allude to his presence. 
Charles is said, by the historian, to have addressed the two 
Highlanders with great emotion ; to have summed up, with 
much eloquence, all the reasons for now beginning the war ; 
and, finally, to have conjured them, in the warmest terms, 
to assist their Prince, their friend, in this his utmost need. 
With eloquence scarcely less warm, the brave young men 
intreated him to desist from his enterprise for the present, 
representing to him that now to take up arms, without 
regular forces, without officers of credit, without concert, 
and almost without arms, would but draw down certain 
destruction upon the heads of all concerned. Charles per- 
sisted, argued, and implored; and they still as positively 
adhered to their opinion. During this conversation the 
parties walked hurriedly backwards and forwards upon the 
deck, using all the gesticulations appropriate to their various 
arguments. A Highlander stood near them, armed at all 
points, as was then the fashion of his country. He was a 
younger brother of Kinlochmoidart, and had come off to 
the ship to inquire for news, not knowing who was on 
board. When he gathered from their discourse that the 
stranger was the heir of Britain, when he heard his chief 
and brother refuse to take up arms for their Prince, his 
colour went and came, his eyes sparkled, he shifted his 
place, and grasped his sword. Charles observed his de- 
meanour, and turning suddenly round, appealed to him 
— ' Will you not assist me V l I will ! I will ! ' exclaimed 
Ranald, l though not another man in the Highlands should 

1 The person here meant was the Marquis of Tullibardine, -whom the Jaco- 
bites considered as rightfully the Duke of Athole. 



24 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

draw a sword; I am ready to die for you! 7 With tears 
and thanks Charles acknowledged the loyalty of the youth, 
and said he wished that all the Highlanders were like 
him. The two obdurate chieftains were overpowered by 
this incident, and no longer expressed any reluctance to 
make an appearance in the cause. 1 

The Prince's interview with Clanranald, according to the 
journalist, who was on board at the same time, occupied 
no less than three hours. The young chief then returned 
to his friends, who had spent that space of time in the pavi- 
lion. ' About half an hour after/ says the journalist, e there 
entered the tent a tall youth of a most agreeable aspect, 
dressed in a plain black coat, with a plain shirt, a cambric 
stock fixed with a plain silver buckle, a fair round wig out 
of the buckle, a plain hat with a canvas string, one end of 
which was fixed to one of his coat buttons, black stockings, 
and brass buckles in his shoes. At the first appearance of 
this pleasing youth I felt my heart swell to my throat. 
But one O'Brien, a churchman, immediately told us that 
he was only an English clergyman, who had long been 
possessed with a desire to see and converse with the High- 
landers.' 

' At his entry,' continues the same writer, l O'Brien for- 
bade any of those who were sitting to rise ; he saluted none 
of us, and we only made a low bow at a distance. I chanced 
to be one of those who were standing when he came in, and 
he took his seat near me ; but he immediately started up 
again, and desired me to sit down by him upon a chest. Tak- 
ing him at this time for only a passenger and a clergyman, I 
presumed to speak to him with perfect familiarity, though I 
could not suppress a suspicion that he might turn out some 
greater man. One of the questions which he put to me, in 
the course of conversation, regarded my Highland dress. 
He inquired if I did not feel cold in that habit, to which I 
answered that I believed I should only feel cold in any 
other. 2 At this he laughed heartily ; and he next desired 
to know how I lay with it at night. I replied that the 
plaid served me for a blanket when sleeping, and I showed 
him how I wrapped it about my person for that purpose. 
At this he remarked that I must be unprepared for defence 
in case of a sudden surprise ; but I informed him that, during 

1 Home's Works, ii. 427. 

2 This is a common Highlandman's answer to a very common question. 
The fact is, that the philabeg, while exposing the knees, invests the haunches 
and middle with such dense folds, as to give great general warmth. I believe 
it has been found that the private men of the Highland regiments have no- 
where complained of their dress so much as in the West Indies. 



prince Charles's voyage and landing, 25 

war or any time of danger, we arranged the garment in 
such a way as to enable us to start at once to our feet, with a 
drawn sword in one hand and a cocked pistol in the other. 
After a little more conversation of this sort, the mysterious 
youth rose from his seat and called for a dram, when 
O'Brien whispered to me to pledge the stranger, but not to 
drink to him, which confirmed me in my suspicions as to 
his real quality. Having taken a glass of wine in his hand, 
he drank to us all round, and soon after left the tent/ l 

During* this and the succeeding day, Clanranald remained 
close in council with Charles, the Marquis of Tullibardine, 
and Sir Thomas Sheridan, devising means for raising* the 
rest of the well-affected clans, who were at this time 
reckoned to number 12,000 men. On the 22d (July) young 
Clanranald proceeded with Allan Macdonald, a younger 
brother of Kinlochmoidart, on an embassy to Sir Alexander 
Macdonald of Sleat, and the Laird of Macleod, whom 
Charles was most unwilling to suppose unfaithful to his 
cause. During the absence of these emissaries, Mr Hugh 
Macdonald, a younger brother of the Laird of Morar, was 
brought on board the Doutelle to visit the Prince. This 
gentleman, after a short complimentary conversation, took 
leave to caution him as to the necessity of keeping strictly 
incognito for the present, as the g*arrison of Fort William 
was not far off, and the neighbouring clan Campbell might 
be very glad to obtain possession of his person. Charles an- 
swered, ' I have no fear about that at all.' With reference 
to the proposed expedition, Mr Macdonald said he had great 
fears of the event, and, like Boisdale, he recommended the 
Prince to return to France. Charles said 'he did not choose 
to owe his restoration to foreigners, but to his own friends, 
to whom he was now come to put it into their power to 
have the glory of that event. And as to returning to France, 
foreigners should never have it to say that he had thrown 
himself upon his friends, that they turned their backs upon 
him, and that he had been forced to return from them to 
foreign parts. In a word, if he could get but six trusty 
men to join him, he would choose far rather to skulk zvith 
them among the mountains of Scotland, than to return to 
France. 1 

On the 25th he came on shore from the Doutelle, accom- 
panied by only the seven gentlemen formerly mentioned. 
He first set his foot upon Scottish ground at Borodale, a 
farm belonging to Clanranald, close by the south shore of 

1 Lockhart Papers, ii. 480. 



26 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Lochnanuagh. Borodale is a wild piece of country, form- 
ing 1 a mountainous tongue of land betwixt two bays. It 
was a place suitable above all others for the circumstances 
and designs of the Prince, being remote, and difficult of 
access, and in the centre of that country where Charles's 
surest friends resided. It belongs to a tract of stern moun- 
tain land, serrated by deep narrow firths, forming the 
western coast of Inverness-shire. Although in the very 
centre of the Highland territory, it is not above one 
hundred and eighty miles from the capital. The Mac- 
donalds and the Stuarts, who possessed the adjacent terri- 
tories, had been, since the time of Montrose, inviolably 
attached to the elder line of the royal family ; had proved 
themselves irresistible at Kilsyth, Killiecrankie, and Sheriff- 
muir ; and were now, from their resistance to the disarming 
act, perhaps the fittest of all the clans to take the field. 

During the absence of young Clanranald, into whose 
arms Charles had thus thrown himself, several gentlemen 
of the family collected a guard for his person, and he re- 
mained a welcome and honoured guest in the house of 
Borodale. 1 Considering that no other chief had yet de- 
clared for him, and that, indeed, the enterprise might never 
advance another step, it must be acknowledged that the 
Clanranald family acted with no small share of gallantry ; 
for there can be little doubt that if he had retired, they 
must have been exposed to the vengeance of government. 
c We encountered this hazard/ says the journalist, * with the 
greatest cheerfulness, determined to risk everything, life 
itself, in behalf of our beloved Prince.' Charles, his com- 
pany, and about one hundred men constituting his guard, 
were entertained with the best cheer which it was in the 
power of Mr Macdonald, tenant of Borodale, to purvey. 
He sat in a large room, where he could see all his adherents 
at once, and where the multitudes of people who flocked 
from the country around, ' without distinction of age or 
sex/ 2 to see him, might also have an opportunity of grati- 
fying their curiosity. At the first meal which took place 
under these circumstances, Charles drank the grace-drink 
in English, a language which all the gentlemen present 
understood ; but for a toast of more extensive application, 
our friend the journalist rose and gave the king's health 3 
in Gaelic — * Deoch slaint an High.' This of course pro- 
duced universal satisfaction ; and Charles desired to know 
what was meant. On its being explained to him, he re- 

1 Loekliart Papers, ii. 482. 2 Ibid, ii. 482. 3 Charles's father. 



THE HIGHLANDERS. 27 

quested to hear the words pronounced again, that he might 
learn them himself. He then gave the king's health in 
Gaelic, uttering the words as correctly and distinctly as he 
could. 'The company/ adds the journalist, 'then men- 
tioning my skill in Gaelic, his royal highness said I should 
be his master in that language ; and I was then desired to 
ask the healths of the prince and duke.' l It may be scarcely 
possible to conceive the effect which Charles's flattering 
attention to their language had upon the hearts of this 
brave and simple people. 



CHAPTEE II. 



THE HIGHLANDERS. 



'tis wonderful 



That an invisible instinct should so frame them 
To loyalty unlearned, honour untaught, 
Civility not seen from others, valour 
That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop 
As if it had been sowed. — Shakspeare. 

The people amidst whom Charles Stuart had cast his 
fate, were then regarded as the rudest and least civilised 
portion of the nation of which he conceived himself the 
rightful ruler. Occupying the most remote and mountain- 
ous section of Britain, and holding little intercourse with 
the rest of the community, they were distinguished by 
peculiar language, dress, and manners ; had as yet yielded 
a very imperfect obedience to government ; and formed a 
society not only distinct from their immediate neighbours, 
but which had probably no exact parallel in Europe. 

The country possessed by this people, forming the north- 
west portion of Scotland, comprehends a large surface ; 
but being of a mountainous and rugged character, it has 
never maintained a large population. In numbers, the 
Highlanders did not now exceed 100,000, or a twelfth of 
the whole population of Scotland. The community was 
divided into about forty different tribes, denominated clans, 
each of which dwelt upon its own portion of the territory. 

At the period of this history, the Highlanders displayed, 
in a state almost entire, what has been called the patriarchal 

1 Charles's younger brother, styled the Duke of York. 



28 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

form of society. This extreme corner of Europe had the 
fortune to shelter nearly the last unmixed remnants of the 
Celts, that early race of people whom the dawn of history 
shows in possession of the ancient continent, but who 
were gradually dispelled to the extremities by others which 
we are now accustomed to call ancient. As they retained 
their primitive manners with almost unmixed purity, there 
was to be seen in the Highlanders of Scotland nearly a dis- 
tinct picture of a state of society compared with which that 
of Borne might be considered as modern. 

Owing to the circumstances of their country, the High- 
landers were, however, by no means that simple and quies- 
cent people who are described as content to dwell each 
under his own vine and fig-tree, any more than their land 
was one flowing with milk and honey. A perpetual state 
of war with the neighbours who had driven them to their 
northern fastnesses, and their disinclination to submit to 
the laws of the country in which they nominally lived, 
caused them, on the contrary, to make arms a sort of pro- 
fession, and even to despise in some measure all peaceful 
modes of acquiring a subsistence. Entertaining, more- 
over, a belief that the Lowlands had been originally 
theirs, many of them, even at this period, practised a regu- 
lar system of reprisal upon the frontier of that civilised 
region, for which of course the use of arms was indispens- 
ably necessary. What still more tended to induce military 
habits, many of the tribes maintained a sort of hereditary 
enmity against each other, and therefore required to be in 
perpetual readiness, either to seize or repel opportunities of 
vengeance. 

The Highlanders, in the earlier periods of history, appear 
to have possessed no superiority over the Lowlanders in the 
use of arms. At the battle of the Harlaw in 1410 (till 
which period they had been quite independent of the kings 
of Scotland), the largest army that ever left the Highlands 
was checked by an inferior number of Lowlanders. Coming 
into the field sixty-eight years after, at the fight of Sauehie- 
burn, where they espoused the cause of James III. against 
his rebellious nobles, c their tumultuous ranks/ says Sir 
Walter Scott in the Introduction to his Border Minstrelsy, 
c were ill able to endure the steady and rapid charge of the 
men of Annandale and Liddesdale, who bore spears two 
ells longer than were used by the rest of their country- 
men. 7 They proved not more invincible at the battles of 
Corrichie, Glenlivat, and others, fought during the six- 
teenth century. 



THE HIGHLANDERS. 29 

But the lapse of half a century after this last period, 
during" which the border spear ha*d been converted into a 
shepherd's crook, and the patriot steel of Lothian and 
Clydesdale into penknives and weavers 7 shears, permitted 
the mountaineers at length to assert a decided superiority 
in arms. When they were called into action, therefore, by 
Montrose, they proved invariably victorious in that short 
but brilliant campaign, which almost retrieved a kingdom 
for their unfortunate monarch. Amidst the exploits of that 
time, the victory of Kilsyth (1645) was attended with some 
circumstances displaying their superiority in a remarkable 
degree. The army arrayed against them, almost doubling 
theirs in number, consisted chiefly of the townsmen of Fife, 
which county has been described, in a publication of the 
time, 1 as remarkable for the enthusiasm of its inhabitants 
in regard to the cause of this quarrel — the National Co- 
venant. Religious fervour proved nothing in this case 
when opposed to the more exalted enthusiasm of ' loyalty 
unlearned/ and the hardihood of an education among the 
hills. The Whig militia scarcely stood a minute before the 
impetuous charge of the Highlanders, but running off in 
a shameful rout, were killed in great numbers by their 
pursuers. 2 

Though the Highlanders were nominally subjugated by 
Cromwell, they regained at the Restoration their former 
privileges and vigour. They were kept in arms, during the 
reigns of the two last Stuarts, by their occasional employ- 
ment as a militia, for the harassment of the west country 
Presbyterians. At the Revolution, therefore, when roused 
by the voice of Dundee, they were equally ready to take 
the field in behalf of King James, as they had been fifty 
years before to rise up for his father. The patriarchal 
system of laws upon which Highland society was consti- 
tuted, disposed them to look upon these unfortunate princes 
as the general fathers or chiefs of the nation, whose natural 
and unquestionable power had been rebelliously disputed 
by their children ; and there can be little doubt that, both 
on these occasions and the subsequent attempts in behalf 
of the Stuart family, they fought with precisely the same 

1 Montrose Redivivus, 1650. 

2 Sir John Sinclair of Longformacus reported to a Scottish hishop still 
living (1846), his having in early life met an aged Highlander who had been at 
the battle of Kilsyth. The man spoke with savage glee of his performances 
amongst the hen-hearted Fife men. * It was a braw day Kilsyth ; at every 
stroke of my sword I cut an ell o' breeks ! ' The people of Fife are said to 
have consequently got a distaste for the army, which had not ceased at the 
close of the ensuing century. See Statistical Account of Scotland, xii. 86. 



30 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

ardour which would induce a man of humanity to ward off 
the blow which an unnatural son had aimed at a parent. 
On the field of Killiecrankie, where they were chiefly op- 
posed by regular, and even veteran troops, they fought with 
signal bravery. 1 Their victory was, however, unavailing, 
owing to the death of their favourite leader, Ian Dim 
nan Cath, as they descriptively termed him — Dark John 
of the Battles — without whose commanding* genius their 
energies could not be directed, nor even their bands kept 
together. 

The submission which was nominally paid throughout 
Britain to the 'parliamentary' sovereigns, William and 
Anne, was in no degree participated by the children of the 
mountains, whose simple ideas of government did not com- 
prehend either a second or a third estate, and who could 
perceive no reasons for preferring a sovereign on account 
of any peculiarity in his religion. In the meantime, more- 
over, the progress of civilisation, encouraged in the low 
countries by the Union, affected but slightly the warlike 
habits of the clans. Their military ardour is said to have 
been, if possible, increased during this period, by the inju- 
dicious policy of King William, who, in distributing 
£20,000 amongst them to bribe their forbearance, only in- 
spired an idea that arms were their best means of acquiring 
wealth and importance. The call, therefore, which was 
made upon them by the exiled Prince in 1715, found them 
as willing and ready as ever to commence a civil war. 

The accession of the house of Hanover was at this period 
so recent, and the rival candidate shared so largely in the 
affections of the people, that very little was wanting to 
achieve the restoration of the house of Stuart. That little 
was wanting — a general of military talent, with some 
degree of resolution on the part of the candidate. The ex- 
pedition was commanded in Scotland by the Earl of Marr, 
who had signalised himself by some dexterity in the slip- 
pery politics of the time, but possessed no other abilities to 
lit him for the important station he held. In England, the 

1 The battle of Killiecrankie was fought upon a field immediately beyond a 
narrow and difficult pass into the Highlands. The royal troops, under Gene- 
ral Mackay, on emerging from this pass, found Dundee's army, which was 
not half so numerous, posted in columns or clusters upon the face of an oppo- 
site hill. Both lay upon their arms, looking at each other, till sunset, when 
the Highland troops came down with their customary impetuosity, and, 
charging through Mackay's lines, soon put them to the rout. Mackay re- 
treated in the utmost disorder, and reached Stirling next day with only two 
hundred men. His whole army must have been cut to pieces in retreating 
through the pass, but for the death of Dundee, and the greater eagerness of 
the Highlanders to secure the baggage than to pursue their enemies. 



THE HIGHLANDERS. SI 

reigning 1 sovereign had even less to dread, in the ill-con- 
certed proceedings of a band of debauched young noblemen, 
who displayed this remarkable difference from the Scottish 
insurgents— that they could not fight at all. Marr per- 
mitted himself to be cooped up on the north of the Forth, 
with an army of 8000 or 9000 men, by the Duke of Argyle, 
who occupied Stirling with a force not half so numerous. 
An action at length took place on Sheriffmuir, in which it 
is impossible to say whether the bravery of the Highlanders, 
the pusillanimity of their leader, or the military genius of 
Argyle, was most signally distinguished. 

The Duke of Argyle learning, on the 11th of November, 
that Marr had at length formed the resolution to fight him, 
and was marching for that purpose from Perth, set forward 
from Stirling ; and next day the armies came within sight 
of each other upon the plain of Sheriffmuir, a mile north- 
east from Dumblane. They both lay upon their arms all 
night ; and a stone is still shown upon the site of the High- 
landers' bivouac, indented all round with marks occasioned 
by the broadswords of these warriors, who here sharpened 
their weapons for the next day's conflict. The battle com- 
menced on Sunday morning*, when Argyle himself, leading* 
his dragoons over a morass which had frozen during the 
night, and which the insurgents expected to protect them, 
almost immediately routed their whole left wing, consisting* 
of the Lowland cavaliers, and drove them to the river Allan, 
two or three miles from the field. His left wing, which 
was beyond the scope of his command, did not meet the 
same success against the right of the insurgents, which con- 
sisted entirely of Highlanders. 

Those warriors had come down from their fastnesses with 
a resolution to fight as their ancestors had fought at Kilsyth 
and Killiecrankie. They appeared before the Lowlanders 
of Perthshire, who had not seen them since the days of 
Montrose, in the wild Irish shirt or plaid, which, only 
covering the body and haunches, leaves the arms and most 
of the limbs exposed in all their shaggy strength. 1 Their 
enthusiasm may be guessed from a simple anecdote. A 
Lowland gentleman, observing* amongst their bands a man 
of ninety, from the upper part of Aberdeenshire, had the 
curiosity to ask how so aged a creature as he, and one who 
seemed so extremely feeble, had thought of joining their 
enterprise. i I have sons here, sir, 7 replied the man, ' and I 
have grandsons j if they fail to do their duty, cannot I 

1 Preface to Pinkerton's Select Old Scottish Poems. 



32 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

shoot them V — laying* his hand upon a pistol which he car- 
ried in his bosom. 1 

The attack of these resolute soldiers upon the left wing 
of the royal army was, to use language similar to their 
own, like the storm which strews a lee shore with wrecks. 
The chief of Clanranald was killed as they were advancing-; 
but that circumstance, which might have been expected to 
damp their ardour, only served to inspire them with greater 
fury. ' To-morrow for lamentation ! ' cried the young chief- 
tain of Glengarry ; 6 to-day for revenge ! ' and the Mac- 
donalds rushed on the foe with irresistible force. Instantly 
put to rout, this portion of the royal army retired to Stir- 
ling, leaving" hundreds a prey to the Highland broadsword. 
Thus each of the two armies was partially successful and 
partially defeated. 

The battle was by no means undecisive in its results. 
Marr, as he deserved none of the credit of his partial victory, 
reaped no profit from it, but was obliged to retire to Perth. 
Argyle remained upon the field, in possession of the enemy's 
cannon and many of his standards. The conduct of this 
celebrated warrior and patriot was in every respect the 
reverse of that of Marr. He had won a victory, so far as 
it could be won, by his own personal exertions, and that 
with every advantage of numbers against him. The hu- 
manity he displayed was also such as seldom marks the 
details of a civil war. He offered quarter to all he met, in 
the very hottest of the fight, and he granted it to all who 
desired it. "With his own sword he parried three different 
blows which one of his dragoons aimed at a wounded cava- 
lier who had refused to ask his life. 2 

In January, James himself, the weak though amiable man 
for whom all this blood was shed, landed at Peterhead, and 
immediately proceeded incognito to join the Earl of Marr at 
Perth. His presence might inspire some enthusiasm, but it 
could not give strength or consistency to the army. Some 
preparations were made for his coronation in the great hall 
of Scoon, where his ancestors had been invested with the 
emblems of sovereignty so many centuries ago. But the 
total ruin of his English adherents, conspired with his own 
imbecility and that of his officers to prevent the ceremony 
from taking place. In February, he retired before the ad- 
vance of the royal army. The Tay was frozen at the time, 
and thus he and all his army were fortunately enabled to 
cross without the difficulty which must otherwise have 

1 ' Can I no sheet them ? '—these were the exact words. 

2 Printed broadside of the battle. 



THE HIGHLANDERS. 33 

attended so sudden a retreat ; directing their march towards 
the seaports of Aberdeenshire and Angus. I have heard 
that, as the good-natured prince was passing over, the 
misery of his circumstances prompted a slight sally of wit, 
as a dark evening will sometimes produce lightning ; and 
he remarked to his lieutenant-general, in allusion to the 
delusive prospects by which he had been induced to come 
over, l Ah, John, you see how you have brought me on the 
ice.' 1 

The chevalier embarked with Marr and other officers at 
Montrose; and the body of the army dispersed with so 
much rapidity, that Argyle, who traversed the country 
only a day's march behind, reached Aberdeen without ever 
getting a glimpse of it. We may safely suppose that the 
humanity of this general, if not the secret leaning to Jaco- 
bitism of which he was suspected, induced him to favour 
the dispersion and escape of the unfortunate cavaliers. The 
Lowland gentlemen and noblemen who had been concerned 
in the campaign suffered attainder proscription, and in 
some cases death; but the Highlanders returned to their 
mountains unconquered and unchanged. 

In 1719, a plan of invasion and insurrection in favour of 
the Stuarts was formed by Spain. A fleet of ten ships of 
the line, with several frigates, having on board 6000 troops 
and 1*2,000 stand of arms, sailed from Cadiz to England ; 
and while this fleet was preparing, the Earl Marischal 
left St Sebastian with two Spanish frigates, having on 
board 300 Spanish soldiers, ammunition, arms, and money, 
and landed in the island of Lewis. The Spanish fleet was 
completely dispersed by a storm off Cape Finisterre; and 
as everything remained quiet in England, very few High- 
landers rose. General Wightman came up with the Spanish 
and Highland force in Glensheil, a wild vale in the west 
of Ross-shire. The Highlanders, favoured by the ground, 
withdrew to the hills without having suffered much ; and 
the Spaniards laid down their arms, and were made pri- 
soners. 

During the ensuing twenty years, the state of the High- 
lands was often under the consideration of government, and 
some steps were taken with a view to render the people less 
dangerous, but none with the design of making them more 
friendly. Three forts — one at Inverness, a second, named 
Fort Augustus, at Killiewhimmen, and a third, named Fort 
William, at Inverlochie, in Lochaber — were kept in full 

1 Information by a Scottish bishop. 
VOL. V. C 



34 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

garrison, as a means of overawing 1 the disaffected clans. 
Under the care of General Wade, the soldiers were employed 
in forming lines of road, for the purpose of connecting these 
forts with the low country. An act was also passed to de- 
prive the people of their arms. It was obeyed to some extent 
by such clans as the Campbells, Sutherlands, and Mackays, 
whose superiors were, from whatever cause, well affected to 
the government; but was generally evaded by the Mac- 
donalds, Stuarts, Camerons, and others, who maintained 
their zeal for the house of Stuart. Thus the measure was 
rather favourable to the Jacobite cause in the Highlands 
than otherwise. 

Such had been the history, and such was the warlike 
condition, of the Scottish mountaineers at the time when 
Prince Charles landed amongst them in July 1745. If 
anything else were required to make the reader understand 
the motives of the subsequent insurrection, it might be said 
that Charles's father and himself had always maintained, 
from their residence in Italy, a correspondence with the 
chiefs who were friendly to them. For the service of these 
unhappy princes, their unlimited power over their clans gave 
them an advantage which the richest English partisans did 
not possess. At the same time, as sufficiently appears from 
the preceding and following chapter, the idea of taking the 
field for the Stuarts without foreign assistance was not 
agreeable to the Jacobite chiefs, though, in most instances, 
their ardour of character ultimately overcame their scruples 
on that point. 

The constitution of Highland society, as already re- 
marked, was strictly and simply patriarchal. The clans 
were families, each of which, bearing one name, occupied a 
well-defined tract of country, the property of which had been 
acquired long before the introduction of writs. Every clan 
was governed by its chief, whose native designation — Kean- 
Kinnhe — ' The Head of the Family ' — sufficiently indicated 
the grounds and nature of his power. In almost every clan 
there were some subordinate chiefs called chieftains, being 
cadets of the principal family, who had acquired a distinct 
territory, and founded separate septs. In every clan, more- 
over, there were two ranks of people — the Doaine-uailse, or 
gentlemen, persons who could clearly trace their derivation 
from the chiefs of former times, and assert their kinsman- 
ship to the present ; and a race of commoners, who could 
not tell how they came to belong to the clan, and who al- 
ways acted in inferior offices. 

There is a very common notion among the Lowlanders 



THE HIGHLANDERS, 35 

that their northern neighbours, with, perhaps, the exception 
of the chiefs, were all alike barbarians, and distinguished 
by no shades of comparative worth. Nothing could be 
farther from the truth. The Doaine-uailse were, in every 
sense of the word, gentlemen — poor gentlemen, perhaps, 
but yet fully entitled, by their feelings and acquirements, 
to that appellation. On the contrar} r , the commoners, who 
yet generally believed themselves related to the chiefs, were 
a race of mere serfs, having no certain idea of a noble an- 
cestry to nerve their exertions or elevate their conduct. 
The Doaine-uailse invariably formed the body upon which 
the chief depended in war; for they were inspired with 
notions of the most exalted heroism by the well-remem- 
bered deeds of their forefathers, and always acted upon the 
supposition that their honour was a precious gift, which it 
was incumbent upon them to deliver down unsullied to 
posterity. The commoners, on the contrary, were often 
left behind to perform the humble duties of agriculture and 
cow-driving ; or, if admitted into the array of the clan, were 
put into the rear rank, and armed in an inferior manner. 

With such a sentiment of heroism, the Highland gentle- 
man of the year 1745 must have been a person of no mean 
order. His mind was further exalted, if possible, by a de- 
voted attachment to his chief, for whose interests he was at 
all times ready to fight, and for whose life he was even pre- 
pared to lay down his own. His politics were of the same 
abstract and disinterested sort. Despising the commercial 
Presbyterians of the low country, and regarding 1 with a 
better-founded disgust the dark system of parliamentary 
corruption which characterised the government of the de 
facto sovereign of England, he at once threw himself into 
the opposite scale, and espoused the cause of an exiled and 
injured prince, whom he looked upon as in some measure 
a general and higher sort of chief. Charles's cause was 
the cause of justice, of filial affection, and even, in his 
estimation, of patriotism ; and with all his prepossessions, 
it was scarcely possible that he should fail to espouse 
it. 1 

1 In this chapter notice might also have "been taken of the effect which 
their popular native poetry had upon the minds of the Highlanders. Through- 
out nearly the whole country, hut especially in Athole and the adjacent ter- 
ritories, there were innumerable songs and ballads tending to advance the cause 
of the Stuarts, while there was not one to depreciate them. A Lowlander and a 
modern cannot easily comprehend, nor can he set forth, the power of this 
simple hut energetic engine. It has been described to me, however, as some- 
thing overpowering. Most of the ballads were founded upon tne wars of 
Montrose and Dundee, and aimed at rousing the audience to imitate the 
actions of their ancestors in these glorious campaigns. 



36 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE GATHERING. 

O, high-minded Murray, the exiled, the dear, 
In the blush of the dawning the standard uprear ; 
Wide, wide on the winds of the north let it fly, 
Like the sun's latest flash when the tempest is nigh ! 

Waverley. 

At Borodale, the Prince received a reply to the message 
which he had sent to Sir Alexander Macdonald and the 
Laird of Macleod. What Boisdale had said of these chiefs 
proved exactly true. Originally well affected to the Stuart 
family, they had recently been tampered with by Duncan 
Forbes, president of the Court of Session, so distinguished as 
a virtuous and enlightened friend of the Hanover succession, 
as well as by the genuine love he bore for his native coun- 
try. Being now disposed to remain on good terms with 
the government, the two insular chiefs returned for answer, 
that although they had promised to support his royal 
highness if he came with a foreign force, they did not con- 
ceive themselves to be under any obligation since he came 
so ill provided. They likewise offered the advice, that he 
should immediately return to France. It was not known 
at the time, but has since been made manifest, that these 
chiefs at this crisis did active service for the government, 
in sending intelligence of the Prince's arrival. Their answer 
to Charles was so disheartening, that now even those who 
had come with him joined with his Highland friends in 
counselling him to give up the enterprise. 1 The example 
of the two Skye chiefs would, they said, be fatal, as many 
others would follow it. Nevertheless, Charles adhered to 
his design, repeating, in reply to all their representations, 
the same words he had used to Mr Hugh Macdonald. With 

1 Young Clanranald was himself shaken in his resolution of arming for the 
Prince "by the conversation he had with Sir Alexander Macdonald, and re- 
turned to his own country with a decided disinclination to the enterprise. 
But when he arrived, he found his clan determined to go out at all hazards, 
whether he should head them or not, having probably been much gained upon 
in the interval by the Prince's address. The young chieftain was thus ulti- 
mately brought back to his former resolution. These facts are stated by 
Bishop Forbes (Lyon in Mourning, MS. in my possession), on the concurring 
testimony of Ranald Macdonald, a son of Borodale, and Mr Macdonald of 
Bellfinlay. 



THE GATHERING. 37 

six good trusty followers, he said, he would skulk in Scot- 
land rather than return to France. 

From Borodale, where he lived in the manner described 
for several days, he despatched messengers to all the chiefs 
from whom he had any expectation of assistance. The first 
that came to see him was Donald Cameron, younger of 
Locheil ; a man in middle age, of great bravery, and uni- 
versally-respected character. Young Locheil, as he was 
generally called, was the son of the chief of the clan Came- 
ron, one of the most numerous and warlike of all the High- 
land tribes. His father had been engaged in the insurrection 
of 1715, for which he was attainted and in exile ; and his 
grandfather, Sir Evan Cameron, the fellow-soldier of Mon- 
trose and Dundee, had died in 1719, after three-fourths of a 
century of military partisanship in behalf of the house of 
Stuart. Young Locheil had been much in confidence with 
the exiled family, whose chief agent in the north of Scotland 
he might be considered ; an office for which he was pecu- 
liarly well qualified, on account of his talents, his integrity, 
and the veneration in which he was held by his country- 
men. He was one of the seven gentlemen who, in 1740, 
entered into an association to procure the restoration of 
King James ; and he had long wished for the concerted 
time when he should bring the Highlands to aid an invad- 
ing party in that cause. When he now learned that Charles 
had landed without troops and arms, and with only seven 
followers, he determined to abstain from the enterprise ; but 
thought himself bound, as a friend, to visit the Prince in 
person, and endeavour to make him withdraw from the 
country. 

In passing from his own house towards Borodale, Locheil 
called at Fassefern, the residence of his brother John Came- 
ron, who, in some surprise at the earliness of his visit, 
hastily inquired its reason. Locheil informed his relative 
that the Prince of Wales had landed at Borodale, and sent 
for him. Fassefern asked what troops his royal highness 
had brought with him ? — what money 1 — what arms ? Locheil 
answered that he believed the Prince had brought with 
him neither troops, nor money, nor arms ; and that, resolved 
not to be concerned in the affair, he designed to do his ut- 
most to prevent it from going any farther. Fassefern 
approved of his brother's sentiments, and applauded his 
resolution, advising him at the same time not to go any 
farther on the way to Borodale, but to come into the house, 
and impart his mind to the Prince by a letter. c No/ said 
Locheil ; i although my reasons admit of no reply, I ought 



38 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OE 1745-6. 

at. least to wait upon his royal highness.' c Brother/ said 
Fassefern, ' I know you better than you know yourself ; if 
this Prince once sets his eyes upon you, he will make you 
do whatever he pleases.' 1 

On arriving 1 at Borodale, Locheil had a private interview 
with the Prince, in which the probabilities of the enter- 
prise were anxiously debated. Charles used every argu- 
ment to excite the loyalty of Locheil, and the chief exerted 
all his eloquence to persuade the Prince to withdraw till a 
better opportunity. Charles represented the present as the 
best possible opportunity, seeing that the French general 
kept the British army completely eng-aged abroad, while at 
home there were no troops but one or two newly-raised 
regiments. He expressed his confidence that a small body 
of Highlanders would be sufficient to gain a victory over 
all the force that could now be brought against him ; and he 
was equally sure that such an advantage was all that was 
required to make his friends at home declare in his favour, 
and cause those abroad to send assistance. All he wanted 
was, that the Highlanders should begin the war. Locheil 
still resisted, intreating Charles to be more temperate, and 
consent to remain concealed where he was, till his friends 
should meet together, and concert what was best to be 
done. Charles, whose mind was wound up to the utmost 
pitch of impatience, paid no regard to this proposal, but 
answered that he was determined to put all to the hazard. 
6 In a few days/ said he, i with the few friends I have, I 
will raise the royal standard, and proclaim to the people of 
Britain that Charles Stuart is come over to claim the crown 
of his ancestors — to win it, or to perish in the attempt! 
Locheil, who my father has often told me was our firmest 
friend, may stay at home, and learn from the newspapers 
the fate of his Prince !' c No !' said Locheil, stung by so 
poignant a reproach, and hurried away by the enthusiasm 
of the moment ; c I will share the fate of my Prince ; and 
so shall every man over whom nature or fortune has given 
me any power.' Such was the juncture upon which de- 
pended the civil war of 1745 ; for it is a point agreed, says 
Mr Home, who narrates this conversation, that if Locheil 
had persisted in his refusal to take arms, no other chief 
would have joined the standard, and l the spark of rebellion 
must have been instantly extinguished.' 2 

1 Home's Works, iii. 7« 

2 Mr Home's account of this affair harmonises with all besides that we 
know of the reckless ardour of the young Prince, and the cautious reluctance 
of the principal chiefs. We may therefore receive it as in the main true. 



THE GATHERING. 39 

Locheil immediately returned home, and proceeded to 
raise his clan, as did some other gentlemen, whom Charles 
then prevailed upon to join him. It being' now settled that 
he was to erect his standard at Glenfinnin on the 19th of 
August, he despatched letters on the 6th of the month to all 
the friendly chiefs, informing them of his resolution, and 
desiring them to meet him at the time and place mentioned. 
In the meantime Clanranald, returned from his unsuccessful 
mission to Skye, actively set about raising his own clan. >^ 

Charles removed, about the 11th of August, from the 
farm-house of Borodale to the mansion of Kinlochmoidart. 
situated seven miles off. While he and his company went 
by sea, with the baggage and artillery, the guard of Clan- 
ranald Macdonalds, which had been already appointed about 
his person, marched by the more circuitous route along the 
shore of the intervening bays. At Kinlochmoidart 1 he was 
joined by Mr John Murray of Broughton, who has already 
been mentioned as an emissary of the Prince to his Scottish 
friends, and who, after waiting during June to warn him 
from the west coast, had afterwards returned to his house 
in Peeblesshire. Mr Murray, who was a man of good 
talents and education, had now once more come to the 
Highlands, in order to join an enterprise which it was too 
late to think of stopping. From this time he acted through- 
out the campaign as the Prince's secretary. Charles re- 
mained at Kinlochmoidart till the 18th, when he went by 
water to Glenaladale, the seat of another chieftain of the 
clan Macdonald, upon the brink of Loch Shiel. He was 
here joined by Gordon of Glenbucket, a veteran partisan, 

Perhaps, however, the ultimate consent of Locheil was less sudden than is 
here represented. In the volume entitled Jacobite Memoirs, compiled hy the 
present author from the papers of Bishop Forbes (p. 22, note), it is stated 
that Locheil, hefore agreeing to come out, took full security for the value of 
his estates from the Prince, and that it was to fulfil this engagement that 
Charles, after the unfortunate conclusion of the enterprise, obtained a French 
regiment for Locheil. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the presence 
of generous feelings does not necessarily forbid that some attention should be 
paid to the dictates of prudence and caution. Locheil might feel that he 
had a right to peril his life and connexion with his country, but not the 
fortune on which the comfort of others besides himself depended, especially 
in an enterprise of which he had a had opinion, and which he only acceded, 
to from a romantic deference to the wishes of another person. 

1 * As the Prince was setting out for Glenfinnin, I was detached to Ardna- 
murchan to recruit, and soon returned with fifty clever fellows, who pleased 
the Prince ; and upon review, his royal highness was pleased to honour me 
with the command of them , telling me I was the first officer he had made in 
Scotland. This compliment delighted me exceedingly, and we all vowed to 
the Almighty that we should live and die with our noble Prince, though all 
Britain should forsake him but our little regiment alone.' — Macdonald's 
Journal; Lockhart Papers, ii. 483. 



40 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

who had figured in the affair of 1715, and who brought 
with him a prisoner of the opposite party, in the person of 
Captain Sweetenham, of Guise's regiment, who had been 
taken by the Keppoch Macdonalds, while travelling from 
Ruthven barracks, in Badenoch, to Fort William. From 
Glenaladale the Prince proceeded next morning, with a 
company of about five-and-twenty persons, in three boats, 
to the eastern extremity of Loch Shiel, near which was the 
place where he designed to raise his standard. 

Meanwhile an incident had occurred which tended not 
a little to foment the rising flame of insurrection. The 
governor of Fort Augustus (a military post, at the dis- 
tance of forty or fifty miles from Charles's landing-place) 
concluding, from reports he heard, that the Moidart people 
were hatching some mischief, thought proper, on the 16th 
of August, to despatch two companies of the Scots Royals 
to Fort William, as a reinforcement to awe that rebellious 
district. The distance between the two forts is twenty-eight 
miles, and the road runs chiefly along the edge of a moun- 
tain, which forms one side of the Great Glen, having the 
sheer height of the hill on one side, and the long narrow 
lakes, out of which the Caledonian Canal has since been 
formed, on the other. The men were newly raised, and, 
besides being inexperienced in military affairs, were unused 
to the alarming circumstances of an expedition in the High- 
lands. When they had travelled twenty out of the eight-and- 
twenty miles, and were approaching High Bridge, a lofty 
arch over a mountain torrent, they were surprised to hear 
the sound of a bagpipe, and to discover the appearance of a 
large party of Highlanders, who were already in possession 
of the bridge. The object of their alarm was in reality a 
band of only ten or twelve Macdonalds of Keppoch's clan ; 
but by skipping and leaping about, displaying their swords 
and firelocks, and by holding out their plaids between each 
other, they contrived to make a very formidable appearance. 
Captain (afterwards General) Scott, who commanded the 
two companies, ordered an immediate halt, and sent forward 
a sergeant with his own servant to reconnoitre. These two 
persons no sooner approached the bridge, than two nimble 
Highlanders darted out and seized them. Ignorant of the 
number of the Highlanders, and knowing he was in a dis- 
affected part of the country, Captain Scott thought it would 
be better to retreat than enter into hostilities. Accordingly, 
he ordered his men to face about, and march back again. 
The Highlanders did not follow immediately, lest they 
should expose the smallness of their number, but permitted 



THE GATHERING. 41 

the soldiers to get two miles away (the ground being* so far 
plain and open) before leaving their post. As soon as the 
retreating party had passed the west end of Loch Lochy, 
and were entering upon the narrow road between the lake 
and the hill, out darted the mountaineers, and ascending 
the rocky precipices above the road, where there was shelter 
from both bush and stone, began to fire down upon the sol- 
diers, who only retreated with the greater expedition. 

The party of Macdonalds who attempted this daring 
exploit was commanded by Macdonald of Tiendrish, who, 
having early observed the march of the soldiers, had sent 
expresses to Locheil and Keppoch, whose houses were only 
a few miles distant on both sides of High Bridge, for sup- 
plies of men. They did not arrive in time, but he resolved 
to attack the party with the few men he had ; and he had 
thus far succeeded, when the noise of his pieces causing 
friends in all quarters to fly to arms, he now found himself 
at the head of a party almost sufficient to encounter the two 
companies in the open field. 

When Captain Scott reached the east end of Loch Lochy, 
he perceived some Highlanders near the west end of Loch 
Oich, directly in the way before him ; and not liking their 
appearance, he crossed the isthmus between the lakes, in- 
tending to take possession of Invergarry Castle, the seat of b^ 
Macdonell of Glengarry. This movement only increased 
his difficulties. He had not marched far, when he disco- 
vered the Macdonells of Glengarry coming clown the oppo- 
site hill in full force against him. He formed the hollow 
square, however, and marched on. Presently after, his 
pursuers were reinforced by the Macdonalds of Keppoch, 
and increased their pace to such a degree as almost to over- 
take him. Keppoch himself then advanced alone towards 
the distressed party, and offered good terms of surrender ; 
assuring- them that any attempt at resistance, in the midst 
of so many enemies, would only be the signal for their being 
cut in pieces. The soldiers, by this time fatigued with a 
march of thirty miles, had no alternative but to surrender. 
They had scarcely laid down their arms, when Locheil came 
up with a body of Camerons from another quarter, and took 
them under his charge. Two soldiers were slain, and Cap- 
tain Scott himself was wounded in this scuffle, which had 
no small effect in raising the spirits of the Highlanders, and 
encouraging them to commence the war. 1 

The gathering of the clans was therefore proceeding with 

1 Home's Works, iii. 12. 



42 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

great activity, and armed bodies were seen everywhere 
crossing the country to Glenfinnin, at the time when 
Charles landed at that place to erect his standard. Glen- 
finnin is a narrow vale, surrounded on both sides by lofty 
and craggy mountains, about twenty miles north from Fort 
William, and as far east from Borodale, forming, in fact, 
the outlet from Moidart into Lochaber. The place gets its 
name from the little river Einnin, which runs through it, 
and falls into Loch Shiel at its extremity. Charles disem- 
barked with his company from the three boats which had 
brought them from Glenaladale, at the place where the 
river discharges itself into the lake. It was eleven in the 
forenoon, and he expected to find the whole vale alive with 
the assembled bands which he had appointed to meet him. 
In this he was disappointed. Only a few natives, the in- 
habitants of a little village, were there to say l God save 
him! 7 Some accident, it was concluded, had prevented the 
arrival of the clans, and he went into one of the neighbour- 
ing hovels to spend the anxious hours which should inter- 
vene before they appeared. 

At length, about an hour after noon, the sound of a 
pibroch was heard over the top of an opposite hill, and im- 
mediately after the adventurer was cheered by the sight of 
a large band of Highlanders in full march down the slope. 
It was the Camerons, to the amount of 700 or 800, 

' All plaided and plumed in their tartan array,' 

coming forward in two columns of three men abreast, to 
the spirit-stirring notes of the bagpipe, and enclosing the 
party of soldiers whom they had just taken prisoners. 
Elevated by the fine appearance of this clan, and by the 
auspicious result of the little action just described, Charles 
set about the business of declaring open war against the 
elector of Hanover. 

The spot selected for the rearing of the standard was a 
little eminence in the centre of the vale. The Marquis of 
Tullibardine, whose rank entitled him to the honour, pitched 
himself upon the top of this knoll, supported by two men, 
on account of his weak state of health. He then flung upon 
the mountain breeze that flag which, shooting like a streamer 
from the north, was soon to spread such omens of wo and 
terror over the peaceful vales of Britain. It was a large 
banner of red silk, with a white space in the centre, but 
without the motto of ' Tandem Triumphans/ which has 
been so often assigned to it— as also the significant emblems 
of a crown and coffin, with which the terror of England at 



THE GATHERING. 43 

one time adorned it. The appearance of the standard was 
hailed by a storm of pipe-music, a cloud of skimmering* 
bonnets, and a loud and enduring shout. Tullibardine 
then read several documents of an important nature, with 
which the Prince had provided himself, The first was a 
declaration, or manifesto, in the name of James VIII., dated 
at Rome December 23, 1743 ; containing a view of the 
public grievances of Britain, and expressing an earnest 
desire to do the utmost to redress them ; calling for this 
purpose on all his loyal subjects to join his standard as 
soon as it should be set up ; and promising, in the event of 
his restoration, to respect all existing institutions, rights, 
and privileges. The second was a commission of the same 
date, in which James appointed his son Charles to be prince 
regent. The third was a manifesto by the Prince, dated at 
Paris May 16, 1745, declaring that he was now come to 
execute the will of his father by setting- up the royal stan- 
dard, and asserting his undoubted right to the throne of his 
ancestors; offering pardon for all treasons to those who 
should now take up arms in his behalf, or at the least abjure 
allegiance to the usurper; calling on the officers of the 
army and navy to come over to his service, in which case 
he should pay all their arrears, and reappointing as his 
servants all public officers whatever who should henceforth 
act in his name ; commanding payment of all jmblic 
monies to officers authorised by him ; promising the same 
respect to existing institutions and privileges as his father ; 
and, finally, calling on all his father's subjects l to be assist- 
ing to him in the recovery of his just rights and of their 
own liberties/ The standard was carried back to the Prince's 
quarters by a guard of fifty Camerons. 1 

About two hours after this solemnity was concluded, 
Macdonald of Keppoch arrived with 300 of his hardy and 
warlike clan ; and in the evening, some gentlemen of the 
name of Macleod came to offer their services, expressing 
great indignation at the defection of their chief, and pro- 
posing to return to Skye and raise all the men they could. 
The army, amounting to about 1200 men, was encamped 
that evening in Glenfinnin, Sullivan being" appointed 
quarter-master-general. 

The insurrection was thus fairly commenced ; and it will 

1 Amongst the spectators on this occasion was a lady named Miss Jeany 
Cameron, who afterwards became the subject of many unfounded popular 
rumours. She was, in reality, a middle-aged lady, of perfect propriety of de- 
portment, and after this occasion did not see the Prince any more, except 
when she met him in public during his stay in Edinburgh. 






44 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

now be necessary to advert to the means taken by govern- 
ment for its suppression, as well as to the state of the coun- 
try upon which Charles was about to descend. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNMENT. 

Duke F.— Come on ; since the youth will not be intreated, his own peril on 
his forwardness. As You Like It. 

At the time when the insurrection broke out, George II. 
was absent in Hanover, on one of those frequent visits to 
his paternal dominions which, with great appearance of 
truth, caused his British subjects to accuse him of being 
more devoted to the interests of his electorate, than he was 
to those of the more important empire over which his 
family had been called to reign. The government was in- 
trusted, during* his absence, to a regency composed of his 
principal ministers. So far as the northern section of the 
island was concerned in the affairs of government, it was 
then managed by a minister called Secretary of State for 
Scotland ; and the Marquis of Tweeddale held the office in 
1745. 

The negotiations which the exiled family had constantly 
carried on with their adherents in Britain, and their in- 
cessant menaces of invasion, rendered the event which had 
now taken place by no means unexpected on the part of 
government, and indeed scarcely alarming. During the 
whole summer, a report had been flying about the High- 
lands that Prince Charles was to come over before the end 
of the season ; l but the king's servants at Edinburgh heard 

1 The following piece of intelligence appears in the Scots Magazine for June 
1745: — ' One David Gillies, born in Fife, having assumed the name and cha- 
racter of Charles Stuart, Prince of Wales, went about here privately among 
weak people, and, by conferring honours and places, 'tis said got a good deal 
of money. Hearing that warrants were issued for apprehending him, he went 
to the country, but was taken at Selkirk, and committed to jail, together 
with his accomplices. The justices of peace of the county, having sent to the 
crown lawyers for their opinion, were advised that it would be taking too 
much notice of such a rascal to try him in the Court of Justiciary, and that 
therefore the justices might punish him as they thought proper. P. S.— On 
the 2d July [the day when the real prince began his voyage], the justices 
sentenced the mock prince, who called himself David Hay, together with his 
court, consisting of two men and two women, to be banished the shire by tuck 
of drum, attended by the hangman, as vagrants ; which was accordingly 
executed on the 4th.' 



PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNMENT. 45 

nothing of it till the 2d of July, when the President of the 
Court of Session came to Sir John Cope, commander-in- 
chief of the forces in Scotland, and showed him a letter 
which he had just received from a Highland gentleman, in- 
forming him of the rumour, though affecting to give it little 
credit. Cope instantly sent notice of what he heard to the 
Marquis of Tweeddale, expressing disbelief in the report, 
but yet advising that arms should be transmitted to the 
forts in Scotland, for the use of the well-affected clans, in 
anticipation of any attempt which might be made. The 
marquis answered General Cope upon the 9th, ordering 
him to keep a vigilant eye upon the north, but mentioning 
that the lords of the regency seemed to decline so alarming 
a measure as sending arms. Cope replied immediately that 
he would take all the measures which seemed necessary for 
his majesty's service, avoiding as much as possible the rais- 
ing of unnecessary alarm. Some further correspondence 
took place before the end of the month, in which the zeal 
and promptitude of this much-ridiculed general appear very 
conspicuous, while the supineness and security of the regency 
are just as remarkable. 

Sir John Cope, whose fortune it was to be Charles's first 
opponent, and who was regarded by President Forbes as 
a good officer of his standing, had at present under his com- 
mand in Scotland two regiments of dragoons, 1 three full 
regiments of infantry, 2 and fourteen odd companies, 3 to- 
gether with the standing garrisons of invalids in the various 
castles and forts. The most of these troops were newly 
raised, being, indeed, intended for immediate transportation 
to Flanders ; and it was impossible to place much confidence 
in them, especially as forming an entire army, without the 
support of more experienced troops. 

With this little army, nevertheless, Cope found himself 
obliged to undertake a campaign ag'ainst the formidable 
bands of the north. He received a letter from the Scottish 
secretary on the 3d of August, announcing that the young 
chevalier, as Charles was called, had really left France in 
order to invade Scotland, and was even said to have already 

1 Gardiner's, lying at Stirling, Linlithgow, Musselburgh, Kelso, and Dunse ; 
and Hamilton's, quartered at Haddington, Dunse, and adjacent places. Their 
horses, as was then the custom, were placed at grass in the parks near the 
quarters of the men. 

2 Guise's regiment of foot at Aberdeen, Murray's in the Highland forts, and 
Lascelles's at Edinburgh and Leith. 

3 Five of Lees's at Dumfries, Stranraer, Glasgow, and Stirling ; two of the 
Scots Royals (taken by Keppoch's men) ; two of the Scots Fusiliers at Glas- 
gow ; two of Lord Semple's at Cupar, in Fife ; and three of Lord John Mur- 
ray's at Crieff. 



46 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

landed there ; commanding him to make such a disposition 
of his forces as to be ready at a moment's notice ; and pro- 
mising immediately to send him down the supply of arms 
he formerly requested. On the 8th he received a letter 
from the Lord Justice-Clerk (Milton), then residing at Rose- 
neath, enclosing another letter, dated the 5th instant, which 
had just been transmitted to Mr Campbell of Stonefield, 
sheriff of Argyle, by Mr Campbell of Aird (factor in Mull 
to the Duke of Argyle) ; which letter g*ave him almost 
certain intelligence of the Prince's landing. Next morning 1 , 
the 9th, Cope was shown by the Lord President another 
letter, confirming the news; and he sent all these papers 
to London, as the best means of rousing the slumbering 
energies of government. 

Without waiting for this communication, the Lords 
Regent published on the 6th of August a proclamation, 
offering £30,000 for the person of the young chevalier, 
whom they announced to have sailed from France for the 
purpose of invading Britain. This proclamation proceeded 
upon an act of George I., by which the blood of James 
Stuart, and of his children, was attainted, and themselves 
outlawed. Charles, on learning the price offered for his 
life, issued from his camp at Kinlochiel (August 22) a pro- 
clamation expressing great indignation at 4 so insolent 
an attempt,' and offering a like sum for the person of the 
Elector of Hanover. Charles's first idea is said to have been 
to propose only £30 for the latter object ; but ultimately he 
was induced to offer the same sum which the government 
had placed upon his own head. 

It is amusing to observe, in the newspapers of the period, 
the various reports which agitated the public mind, and, 
above all, the uncertainty and meagreness of the intelli- 
gence which reached Edinburgh regarding Charles's trans- 
actions in Lochaber. On the 5th of August, it is mentioned 
in the Edinburgh Courant that the Prince had left France. 
Next day, it is reported, as a quotation from some foreign 
journal, that he had actually landed in the Highands, and 
was sure of 30,000 men and ten ships of war. No other 
intelligence of note is observable till the 22d, when it is 
stated that two Glasgow vessels, in their way home from 
Virginia, had touched somewhere in the north-west High- 
lands, and learned that the dreaded Pretender was actually 
there, with 10,000 men, and had sent word to the governor 
of Fort William l that he would give him his breakfast that 
morning .' The uncertainty which long prevailed in Edin- 
burgh regarding the proceedings in Lochaber, shows, in 



PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNMENT. 47 

a striking manner, how difficult it was to obtain correct 
intelligence in those days from a district which now would 
be considered as distant little more than a day's journey. 

In projecting* measures against the threatened insurrec- 
tion, Sir John Cope had all along held counsel with those 
civil officers who, ever since the Union, have exercised in- 
fluence over the affairs of Scotland — the Lord President of 
the Court of Session, the Lord Justice-Clerk, the Lord Ad- 
vocate, and the Solicitor- General. The gentlemen who held 
the two first of these offices — Duncan Forbes, and Andrew 
Fletcher — were men of not only the purest patriotism and 
loyalty, but of good understanding and attainments. Dun- 
can Forbes, in particular, from his intimate acquaintance 
with the Highlanders, of whom he had previously converted 
many to government, seemed well qualified to direct the 
operations of a campaign against that people. 

The advice of all these gentlemen tended to this effect — 
that Sir John Cope should march as fast as possible into 
the Highlands, in order to crush the insurrection before it 
reached any height. It is very probable 1 that this advice 
was dictated by a feeling* of humanity towards the insur- 
gents, many of whom were the intimate friends and asso- 
ciates of the advisers. Forbes seems to have wished, by this 
means, at once to repress those who had risen, before go- 
vernment should become exasperated against them, and 
to prevent as many as possible from joining, who, he was 
sure, would soon do so if the enterprise was not immediately 
checked. The counsel was more honourable in its motive 
than prudent in policy. The royal army was not only in- 
ferior in numbers to that which Charles was believed to 
have drawn together, but had to contend with all the dis- 
advantages of a campaign in an enemy's country, and on 
ground unsuitable for its evolutions : would first have to 
drag its way slowly over rugged wildernesses, with a clog- 
of baggage and provisions behind it, and then perhaps fight 
in a defile, where it would be gradually cut to pieces, or, 
what was as bad, permit the enemy to slip past and descend 
upon the low country, which it ought to have protected. 
The advice was even given in defiance of experience. The 
Duke of Argyle, in 1715, by guarding the pass into the 
Lowlands at Stirling, prevented the much superior army of 
Marr from disturbing the valuable part of the kingdom, 
and eventually was able to paralyse and confound the whole 
of that enterprise. 

1 Probable from the tenor of their letters.— See Culloden Papers. 



48 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Cope is conjectured by Mr Home, 1 though the fact is not 
so obvious, to have been confirmed in his desire of prompt 
measures by a piece of address on the part of the Jacobites. 
These gentlemen, who were very numerous in Edinburgh, 
remembering perhaps the precedent alluded to, and knowing 
that Charles, with a small supply of money, would not be 
able to keep the Highlanders long together in their own 
country, conceived it to be their best policy to precipitate a 
meeting between the two armies. They therefore contrived, 
it is said, that Sir John Cope, who seemed to have no opi- 
nions of his own, but consulted everybody he met, should be 
urg-ed to perform the march he proposed, as the measure 
most likely to quell the insurrection, which, it was hinted 
hy these insidious advisers, wanted nothing but a little time 
to become formidable. 

Thus advised, and thus perhaps deluded, Sir John Cope 
rendezvoused his raw troops at Stirling, and sent off a letter 
to the Scottish secretary, requesting permission to march 
immediately against the rebels. The reasons which he gave 
for his proposal seemed so strong in the eyes of the Lords 
Regent, that they not only agreed to it, but expressly ordered 
him to march to the north and engage the enemy, whatever 
might be his strength, or wherever he might be found. 
This order reached Sir John at Edinburgh on the 19th of 
August, the very day when Charles reared his standard ; 
and Cope set out that day for Stirling, to put himself at the 
head of his little army. 

Next day the commander-in-chief commenced his fatal 
march. His force consisted of twenty-five companies of 
foot, amounting in all to 1400 men ; for he had left the two 
regiments of dragoons behind, on account of their presumed 
unfitness for a Highland campaign. He carried with him 
four pieces of cannon (one and a half pounders), as many 
cohorns, and a thousand stand of arms, to be given to the 
native troops which he expected to join him as he went 
along. Besides a large quantity of baggage, he was followed 
by a train of black cattle, with butchers to kill them as re- 
quired ; and he had as much bread and biscuit as would 
serve for twenty-one days ; for the production of which, all 
the bakers in Edinburgh, Leith, and Stirling had been 
working for a week. 2 

It was Sir John's intention to march to Fort Augustus, 
the central fort of the three which are pitched along the 

i Works, iii. 28. Mr Home adds, that he was assured of the fact by the 
Jacobites themselves. 
2 Report of Cope's Trial. 



PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNMENT. 49 

Great Glen. He considered this the most advantageous 
post that could be occupied by the king r s army, because 
it was in the centre of the disaffected country, and ad- 
mitted of a ready communication with the adjacent places 
of strength. He accordingly adopted that military road 
through the middle of the "Highlands which, stretching 
athwart the Grampians, is so remarkable in the memory of 
all travellers for its lonely desolation in summer, and its 
dangerous character when the ground is covered with snow. 
His first day's march was to Crieff, where he was obliged 
to halt till he should be overtaken by 100 horse-loads of 
bread that had been left at Stirling*. Having previously 
written to the Duke of Athole, LoroTGlenorchy (son of the 
Earl of Breadalbane), and other loyal chiefs, desiring them 
to raise their men, the first of these noblemen here visited 
him ; but the chief of Athole, though disposed to preserve 
his estate by keeping on good terms with government, was 
by no means so ardently loyal as to take arms in its defence. 
Cope was then, for the first time, shaken in his hope of 
gaining accessions of strength as he went along — the hope 
which had mainly induced him to go north with so small 
an army ; and he would have gladly returned to Stirling, 
had not the orders of government, as he afterwards acknow- 
ledged, 1 been so peremptory for a contrary course. Lord 
Glenorchy waited upon the disconcerted general on the 
afternoon of the same day, and gave him additional pain, by 
the intelligence that he could not gather his men in proper 
time. He then saw fit to send back 700 of his spare arms 
to Stirling. 

Advancing on the 22d to Amulree, on the 23d to Tay 
Bridge, on the 24th to Trinifuir, and on the 25th to Dal- 
nacardoch, the difficulties of a Highland campaign became 
gradually more and more apparent to the unhappy general, 
whose eyes were at the same time daily opened wider and 
wider to the secret disaffection of the Highlanders. His 
baggage-horses were stolen in the night from their pastures, 
so that he was obliged to leave hundreds of his bread-bags 
behind him. Those who took charge of this important de- 
posit, though they promised to send it after him, contrived 
that it should never reach its destination, or at least not 
until it was useless. He was also played upon and dis- 
tracted by all sorts of false intelligence ; so that he at last 
could not trust to the word of a single native, gentleman or 
commoner. 

1 Report of Cope's Trial, 17. 
VOL. V. D 



50 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

When at the lonely inn of Dalnacardoch, he was met by 
Captain Sweetenhain, the officer already mentioned as hav- 
ing" been taken by the insurgents ; who, after witnessing the 
erection of the standard, had been discharged upon his 
parole, and now brought Cope the first certain intelligence 
he had received regarding the real state of the enemy. 
Sweetenham had left them when their numbers were 1400 ; 
he had since met many more who were marching to the 
rendezvous ; and as he passed Dalwhinnie, the last stage, 
he had been informed by Macintosh of Borlum that they 
were now 3000 strong, and were marching to take posses- 
sion of Corriearrack. Cope soon after received a letter from 
President Forbes (now at his house of Culloden, near Inver- 
ness), confirming the latter part of Captain Sweetenham's 
intelligence. 

Corriearrack, of which the insurgents were about to take 
possession, is a lofty and wide-spreading mountain, inter- 
posed betwixt Cope's present position and Fort Augustus, 
and over which lay the road he was designing to take. 
This road, which had recently been formed under the care 
of General Wade, ascends the steep sides of the mountain 
by seventeen traverses, each of which leads the traveller 
but a small way forward in the actual course of his journey. 
It was the most dangerous peculiarity of the hill, in the 
present case, that the deep ditch or water-course along* the 
side of the road afforded many positions in which an enemy 
could be intrenched to the teeth, so as to annoy the ap- 
proaching army without the risk of being annoyed in re- 
turn ; and that, indeed, a very small body of resolute men 
could thus entirely cut off and destroy an army, of what- 
ever numbers or appointments, acting upon the offensive. 
It was reported to Sir John Cope that a party of the High- 
landers was to wait for him at the bridge of Snugborough, 
one of the most dangerous passes in the mountain, and 
that, while he was there actively opposed, another body, 
marching round by a path to the west, and coming in be- 
hind, should completely enclose him, as between two fires, 
and in all probability accomplish his destruction. 1 

The royal army had advanced to Dalwhinnie, about 
twenty miles distant from the summit of Corriearrack, 
when the general received this intelligence ; and so press- 
ing had his dilemma then become, that he conceived it 
improper to move farther without calling a council of war. 
It was on the morning of the 27th of August that this 

1 Report of Cope's Trial, 24. 



PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNMENT. 51 

meeting took place, at which various proposals were made 
and considered for the farther conduct of the army. All 
agreed, in the first place, that their original design of 
marching over Corriearrack was impracticable. To remain 
where they were was needless, as the insurgents could slip 
down into the Lowlands by other roads. Two objections 
lay against the measure which seemed most obvious, that 
of marching back again — namely, the orders of government, 
so express in favour of a northward march, and an imme- 
diate encounter with the enemy, and the likelihood of the 
Highlanders intercepting them in their retreat by breaking 
down the bridges and destroying the roads. The only other 
course was to turn aside towards Inverness, where they had 
a prospect of being joined by some loyal clans, and in 
which case they might expect that the insurgents would 
scarcely dare to descend upon the Lowlands, as such a 
course would necessarily leave their own country exposed 
to the vengeance of an enemy. 

In reality, as the event showed, the proper course on this 
occasion would have been to fall back on some convenient 
post near the frontier of the low country, there to make a 
determined stand against the clans, as the Duke of Argyle 
had done in 1715. Yet this expedient was supported by 
only one voice in the council. It was at last unanimously 
agreed to turn aside to Inverness — thus leaving the valuable 
part of the country completely exposed, and sacrificing a 
real object for the mere sake of obeying- the letter of an 
order given, probably, in the contemplation of totally 
different circumstances. Sir John, having taken care to 
get the seals-manual of his companions to the resolution, 
issued orders to alter the route of the army. The van had 
reached Blairobeg, three and a half miles south of Garva- 
more Inn, and ten miles from Corriearrack, and the rear 
was at Catlaig, four miles behind, when the troops were 
ordered to halt, face about, and, retracing their steps, turn 
off by the road which parts to the east at the last-mentioned 
place, and proceeds by Ruthven to Inverness. 1 In order to 
deceive the enemy, who lay upon the top of Corriearrack 
expecting his approach, the general caused a small portion 
of his army to advance, with the camp-colours flying, 
towards the hill, under the semblance of an advanced 
guard, with orders to overtake the main body with all 
speed, when they had allowed time for it to get half a day's 

1 * Two rowan-trees (mountain-ashes) mark the place where Sir John 
Cope's army faced about, and avoided an action with the rebels.'— Home. 



52 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

march upon its new route. He arrived, by forced marches, 
at Inverness upon the 29th, without having rested a single 
day since he left Crieff. 



CHAPTER V. 

Charles's descent upon the lowlands. 

Rouse, rouse, ye kilted warriors ! 

Rouse, ye heroes of the north ! 
Rouse and join your chieftains' banners ; 

'Tis your Prince that leads you forth. 

Jacobite Song. 

At Glennnnin, where the standard had been raised on the 
19th, the Prince spent two happy days. So at least we 
are assured they were by Major Macdonald of Tiendrish, 
who, when confined in the castle of Edinburgh, told Bishop 
Forbes c that he had never seen the Prince more cheerful 
at any time, and in higher spirits, than when he had got. 
together four or iiYe hundred men about the standard.' 
He then removed to Kinlochiel — that is, the head of Loch 
Eil — in the country of the chief of the Camerons. The 
retaliatory proclamation, offering £30,000 for the person of 
the reigning king, was i given in our camp at Kinlochiel, 
August the 22d.' He lodged on the night of Friday the 
23d at Fassefern, on the side of Loch Eil, the residence of 
the young chief's brother. Loch Eil is a branch of Loch 
Linnhe, the arm of the sea on which Fort William is situated : 
it was therefore liable to a hostile inroad from the nautical 
craft of the enemy. A war-vessel having actually appeared 
at Fort William, the chevalier removed across a hill to 
Moy, a village on the river Lochy, belonging to the Came- 
rons. He was now daily receiving intelligence of Cope's 
northern progress from deserters who nightly left the 
camp of that general, in order to join their respective 
clans. On the 26th he crossed the Lochy, and advanced 
to Letterfinlay, a lonely inn on the brink of Loch Lochy ; 
he was joined on the way (at Low Bridge) by the Stuarts 
of Appin, 260 in number, under the command of Stuart 
of Ardshiel. About midnight, an express arrived from Gor- 
don of Glenbucket, informing him that Cope had advanced 
into Badenoch, and was designing to cross Corriearrack ; 
immediately on which, though the night was extremely 



Charles's descent upon the lowlands. 53 

stormy, he gave orders for his men to go forward and take 
possession of the hill, and went himself to Invergarry 
Castle, where he spent the remainder of the nig'ht. 

At Invergarry he was visited by Fraser of Gortuleg, on 
a secret embassy from Lord Lovat. This nobleman, now 
advanced to the seventy-eighth year of his age, was chief 
of the clan Fraser, and possessed large estates in Inverness- 
shire : he was able to bring several hundred men into the 
field. Discontented with the government, and well-inclined 
to the Stuart family, he was yet disposed to act with great 
caution. Gortuleg therefore excused the personal presence 
of the chief on account of his age, but recommended Charles 
to march into his country of Stratherrick, and raise the 
Frasers ; at the same time he asked for a patent which had 
been promised by the old chevalier, creating Lovat a duke, 
and begged to have an order for seizing the President 
Forbes dead or alive. The patent chanced to be left behind 
with the baggage, and was therefore not forthcoming : the 
Prince so far complied with the other request, as to g'ive an 
order for seizing the person of the Lord President. "With 
this Gortuleg returned to his chief. He is found, two days 
after, writing- a friendly letter to the President, in which he 
only adverts to his having seen some of the insurgent chiefs 
at Invergarry, and seems anxious to serve the government 
by communicating the information he had thus acquired. 
We shall see more of the crooked policy of Lovat in the 
sequel. 

Next day, the 27th, while the royal officers were deter- 
mining upon their evasive march to Inverness, Charles and 
his army, now augmented by the Macdonells of Glengarry 
and Grants of Glenmorriston to 1800 men, proceeded to the 
foot of Corriearrack, the summit of which was already in 
possession of the party which had been sent forward the 
night before. The Prince, always the most eager man of 
the whole army, is said by Fraser of Gortuleg-, in his letter 
to the Lord President, to have i called that morning for his 
Highland clothes, and, tying the latchets of his shoes, 
solemnly declared that he would be up with Mr Cope be- 
fore they were unloosed.' The insurgents were informed of 
Cope's evasive movement by a soldier of the clan Cameron, 
who deserted in order to convey the intelligence, as soon as 
he perceived the army turn off at Catlaig. They hailed the 
news with a loud shout of exultation ; and the Prince, call- 
ing for a glass of brandy, and ordering every man one of 
usquebaugh, drank, i To the health of good Mr Cope, and may 
every general in the usurper's service prove himself as much 



54 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

our friend as he has done ! \ * They then descended the 
steep traverses upon the south side of Corriearrack, with the 
rapid steps and eager countenances of men who give chase. 

It was the first wish of the Highland army on this occa- 
sion that Johnny Cope, as they called him, should be pur- 
sued, and he and his men cut to pieces. However, when 
they reached Garvamore, the first stage from the bottom of 
the hill, it was determined, by a council of war, that the 
unfortunate general should be left to the consequences of his 
own false step at Inverness, and that they should proceed 
in the meantime to take advantage of his desertion of the 
Lowlands. They were confirmed in this resolution by Mr 
Murray of Broughton, who represented that, by the in- 
fluence of the Jacobites in Edinburgh, they would gain easy 
possession of that capital, and thus give as much eclat to 
their arms as might be expected from the achievement of a 
victory. It also appeared that, by this course, if they left the 
Frasers, the Macintoshes, and other northern clans, whom 
they expected to join them, the Marquis of Tullibardine 
would raise the men of Athole before the duke his brother 
had time to interest them in the cause of government. 

It was more particularly at this juncture that Charles's 
enterprise assumed that bold and romantic character for 
which it was destined to be so remarkable. Having once 
made the resolution to descend upon the low countries, he 
did so with spirit and rapidity. Two days sufficed to carry 
him through the alpine region of Badenoch ; another to 
open up to his view the pleasant vale of Athole, which 
might be considered as the avenue into the fertile country 
he was invading. He seems to have acted entirely like a 
man who has undertaken a high and hazardous affair, 
which he is resolved to carry through with all his spirit 
and address. Nature and education had alike qualified him 
for such an enterprise. Originally gifted with a healthy 
and robust constitution, he had taken care to inure himself 
to a hardy and temperate mode of life ; had instructed him- 
self in all kinds of manly exercises ; and, in particular, had 
made himself a first-rate pedestrian by hunting a-foot over 
the plains of Italy. 2 The Highlanders were astonished to 
find themselves overmatched at running, wrestling, leap- 
ing, and even at their favourite exercise of the broadsword, 

1 Henderson's History of the Rebellion, 34. 

2 Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides (2d ed.), 231. In his march through the 
Highlands to meet Cope, he walked sixteen Scottish miles one day, in boots, 
fatiguing the hardiest of his companions. The men, hearing that one of his 
boots had lost a heel, said they were glad of it, as he would now be obliged to 
walk more at leisure.— Donald Cameron's Narrative, Lyon in Mourning, 



Charles's descent upon the lowlands. 55 

by the slender stranger of the distant lands ; but their asto- 
nishment gave place to admiration and affection, when they 
discovered that Charles had adopted all these exercises out 
of compliment to them, and that he might some day show 
himself, as he said, a true Highlander. By walking, more- 
over, every day's march alongside one or other of their 
corps, inquiring into their family histories, songs, and 
legends, he succeeded in completely fascinating the hearts 
of this simple people, who could conceive no greater merit 
upon earth than accomplishment in the use of arms, accom- 
panied by a taste for tales of ancient glory. The enthu- 
siastic and devoted attachment with which he succeeded in 
inspiring them, was such as no subsequent events could 
ever altogether extinguish. Half a century after, when age 
might have been supposed to deaden their early feelings, 
his surviving fellow-adventurers rarely spoke of him with- 
out a sigh or a tear. 

At Dalwhinnie, where the army cheerfully bivouacked, 
along with their young leader, on the open moor, a party 
who had gone upon an unsuccessful expedition against the 
small government fort of Ruthven, 1 brought in Macpher- 
son of Cluny, chief of that clan, and son-in-law of Lord 
Lovat — a man of vigorous character, and one whose acces- 
sion to the cause at such a moment would have been of 
considerable importance. He had accepted a command 
under government, and only the day before attended Sir 
John Cope at Dalwhinnie, and received orders to embody 
his clan, in which there were about 300 lighting men ; but 
he was in reality a partisan of the Stuart family, though, 
under the present circumstances, not decided to take up 
arms in its behalf. He was conducted to Charles as a kind 
of honourable prisoner, and carried along with the army to 
Perth, whence he returned to raise his clan for the cheva- 
lier. The same cautious policy which has been attributed 
to Locheil, is said to have been followed by Cluny. Before 
consenting to join the Prince, he demanded and obtained 
from him security for the full value of his estate, lest the 
expedition should prove unsuccessful. 2 Let not this policy 

1 ' In this route, Lochgary, Dr Cameron, and O'Sullivan, were sent to 
Ruthven, in Badenoch, to take the barracks. Neither side had any cannon. 
The Highland party endeavoured to set fire to the door ; hut the soldiers fired 
through holes in the door, killed one man, and mortally wounded two more ; 
and then the party retired. This garrison consisted only of twelve men, com- 
manded by Sergeant Molloy.'— Journal of Mneas Macdonald, Forbes Papers, 
in possession of the author. 

2 Young Glengarry communicated this fact, which he said he had from 
Cluny's own mouth, to Bishop Forbes in April 1752.— Jacobite Memoirs, p. 22. 



56 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

be regarded as detracting* too much from any merit of self- 
sacrifice hitherto attributed to these men. It might appear 
to them as not only justified, but demanded, in consequence 
of the failure of the Prince to bring* foreign aid. And, 
after all, the purchase-money of a Highland gentleman's 
estate was but a small part of what he risked on this occa- 
sion, seeing that, in the first place, he took the common 
hazards of war ; in the second, risked the pains of treason ; 
and, after these, the loss of his home and country, in which 
was included all that was enviable in the state and circum- 
stance of one who enjoyed the veneration, and could control 
the actions, of perhaps a thousand of his fellow-creatures. 

As the mountain host descended upon the plain, they 
were joined, like one of their own rivers, by accessions of 
strength at the mouths of all the little glens which they 
passed. But while many of the people joined, and prepared 
to join them, a very considerable number of the landed pro- 
prietors fled at their approach ; among the rest, the Duke of 
Athole. In the absence of this nobleman from his house at 
Blair, his brother, the Marquis of Tullibardine, took posses- 
sion of it as his own ; and here Charles spent the night of 
the 30th of August. Along with Charles, the marquis 
undertook on this occasion to entertain all the Highland 
chiefs ; and the supper which he gave was suitable to the 
distinguished character of the guests. During the evening, 
it is said, the Prince exerted himself to appear cheerful, 
though the anxiety arising from his circumstances occa- 
sionally drew a shade of thoughtfulness over his otherwise 
sprightly features. He partook only of the dishes which 
are supposed to be peculiar to Scotland ; and, in pursuance 
of the same line of policy which induced him to walk in 
tartan at the head of his troops, attempted to drink the 
healths of the chiefs in the few words of Gaelic which he 
had already picked up. To the Marquis of Tullibardine, 
who, as a gentleman of the old school, always talked in 
broad Scotch, he addressed himself in similar language; 
and in all his deportment, he showed an evident anxiety to 
conciliate and please those among* whom his lot was cast. 1 
Observing the guard which his host had placed in the 
lobby to be constantly peeping in, he affected a desire of 
enjoying the open air ; and walking out into the lobby, 
gratified the poor Highlanders with a view of his person, 
which they had not previously seen, on account of their 
recent arrival at the house. 2 

1 Henderson's History of the Rebellion. 36. 2 Tradition in Athole. 



Charles's descent upon the lowlands. 57 

The morning" after his arrival at Blair, he reviewed his 
troops. Some whom he had lately seen around him being 
now wanting, he despatched a few of his officers to bring 
them forward to Blair, when it was found that their only* 
reason for lingering behind was, that they had been denied 
the satisfaction of pursuing General Cope ! At Blair he 
spent two days, during which he was joined by Lord Nairn, 
a cadet of the great house of Athole, and by several gentle- 
men of the country. At Lude, the seat of a chieftain of the 
clan Robertson, to which he next proceeded, he was very 
cheerful, and took his share in several dances, including 
minuets and Highland reels. A faithful chronicler informs 
us that the first tune he called for was the well-known 
Jacobite one, * This is no my ain house ' — referring to the 
alien character of all political arrangements since 1688. 1 
Proceeding down the Blair or Plain of Athole, he arrived 
on the 3d at Dunkeld, and next day he dined at Nairn 
House, between that town and Perth. Here i some of the 
company happened to observe what a thoughtful state his 
father would now be in, from the consideration of those 
dangers and difficulties he had to encounter, and that upon 
this account he was much to be pitied. The Prince replied 
that he did not half so much pity his father as his brother ; 
" for," said he, " the king has been inured to disappoint- 
ments and distresses, and has learned to bear up easily under 
the burdens of life ; but poor Harry ! his young and tender 
years make him much to be pitied, for few brothers love as 
we do.'" 2 

This evening he entered Perth, where a party of his 
troops had already proclaimed his father and himself as re- 
spectively king and regent. He rode on this occasion the 
horse which had been given to him by Major Macdonald of 
Tiendrish, and was attended by a cavalcade of gentlemen, 
amongst whom were the Duke of Perth, Oliphant of Gask, 
and Mercer of Aldie, who had joined him as he passed 
through their estates. Well-mounted, and attired in a 
handsome suit of tartan trimmed with gold-lace, he made 
a very good appearance. The people, dazzled by the no- 
velty of the spectacle, hailed him with acclamations, and 
conducted him in a kind of triumph to the lodgings which 
had been prepared for him in the house of a Jacobite noble- 
man. This was the first town of consequence which Charles 
had yet arrived at, and he had every reason to be satisfied 
with his reception ; although the magistrates had thought 

1 Duncan Cameron's Narrative, Jacobite Memoirs. 2 The same. 



58 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

proper to leave their charge, and disappear on the preceding 
evening. A fair being held at the time in Perth, there 
were many strangers present, to join in the novel and 
agitated feelings with which this singular scene was con- 
templated. 

The house appropriated for Charles's residence was that 
of the Viscount Stormont, 1 elder brother to the elegant 
William Murray, who afterwards became Chief Justice of 
the King's Bench and Earl of Mansfield. Stormont, like 
his brother, and all the rest of the family, was a Jacobite at 
heart, but one who did not feel inclined to risk life and pro- 
perty in the cause. He did not choose to be present on this 
occasion to entertain the Prince ; but no attentions were 
wanting on the part of his household ; and one of his sisters 
is said to have spread down a bed for Prince Charlie with 
her own fair hands. 2 

The neighbouring seaport of Dundee, though not in the 
Prince's line of march, was of too much importance to 
escape notice on this occasion. That very evening Charles 
despatched Keppoch and Clanranald with a party of Mac- 
donalds, who, entering the town about daybreak next morn- 
ing, captured two vessels in the harbour, containing arms 
and ammunition, which they immediately sent to Perth for 
the use of the army. 

The i Duke of Perth,' who had joined the Prince before 
he reached that town, was, strictly speaking, only James 
Drummond, proprietor of large estates in Perthshire, and 
representative of the Drummonds, Earls of Perth, one of 
the most distinguished of the noble families of Scotland. 
His grandfather, James, fourth Earl of Perth, had followed 
the fortunes of James II., and been created a duke at St 
Germains. The son of this nobleman, joining the insur- 
rection in 1715, was attainted, so that, at his father's death 

1 It was an antique house with a wooden front, standing upon the site of 
the present Perth Union Bank, near the bottom of the High Street. 

2 Information from the late John Young, Esq., W.S., Castle Street, Edin- 
burgh. Mr Young, as the son of a non-jurant clergyman in Fife, was likely 
to be correctly informed on such matters. The Stormont family relaxed in 
their Jacobitism as the great man of their family advanced in legal and state 
honours ; for which, it may be supposed, the more faithful of the remnants 
of the party did not like them the better. One day, early in the reign of 
George III., Hamilton of Kilbrachmont, in Fife, a most determined old par- 
tisan, and a good deal soured in his temper, calling upon the Misses Murray, 
was much annoyed at the ostentation with which the good ladies paraded a 
few portraits of members of the royal family, which had been sent to them 
by their brother. The irritation was completed by their speaking of the great 
personages represented as ' the people above.' * People above ! ' exclaimed old 
Hamilton—' fient nor they were up the lum ! ' Lum being chimney in English. 
And, thus saying, he flung out of the house. 



CHARLES'S DESCENT UPON THE LOWLANDS. 09 

in 1716, the titles became dormant. But the estates having: 
been previously transferred to his infant son, were preserved 
for the benefit of that person, who now lived upon them, 
boldly assuming the title which had been conferred by 
James II. upon his grandfather. The so-called duke was 
thirty-two years of age, brave, frank, and liberal, but dis- 
liked by many on account of his profession of the Catholic 
faith, in which he had been reared by a remarkably enthu- 
siastic mother. When Charles was in the West Highlands, 
a warrant was issued for the seizure of the duke, and two 
Highland officers, Sir Patrick Murray of Auchtertyre, and 
Mr Campbell of Inverary, undertook to execute it. under 
circumstances extremely discreditable to them. Having 
asked themselves to his house to dinner, he invited them to 
come in the kindest terms, as friends and neighbours, and 
entertained them hospitably. Meanwhile they had ordered 
a military party to surround the house, and when all was 
prepared, they announced their warrant. The duke with 
difficulty restrained his temper, and told them he would step 
into a closet off the dining-room, to prepare himself to go 
with them. They, trusting that he could not escape, as- 
sented. He instantly went down a back stair, through his 
gardens, and into the adjoining wood, crawling on hands 
and knees to avoid being seen by the sentinels. Fortunately, 
he found a horse, though without a saddle, and only hal- 
tered, on which he rode to the house of his friend Moray of 
Abercairney. 1 Having thus escaped the fangs of the go- 
vernment, by which he should otherwise have been held in 
restraint till after the insurrection was over, he was now by 
no means less eager than before to promote the cause of the 
house of Stuart, by personal service, and the aid of his 
numerous dependents, who of themselves nearly formed a 
regiment. 

Charles received considerable reinforcements at Perth. 
Viscount Strathallan, a cadet of the Drummond family, 
Lord Ogilvie, son of the Earl of Airlie, and John Roy 
Stuart, a gentleman of Speyside, and the beau ideal of a clever 
Highland officer, 2 were amongst the most conspicuous per- 

1 Jacobite Memoirs, 16. 

2 John Roy was the son of the Baron of Kincardine on the Spey, and line- 
ally descended from Robert II., the first of the Stuart kings. He was in the 
prime of life, an excellent soldier, and also a writer of verses, both English 
and Gaelic, many of which are still traditionally preserved in the Highlands. 
An old Highland woman, a few years ago (1827), describing John Roy's per- 
son, which she had seen, said that his eye in particular was very fine — her 
expression was, like the eye of a horse— of course an exaggeration, yet marking 
a feature of no common size and brilliancv. 



60 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

sons of note who here joined him : the last-mentioned 
gentleman brought with him from abroad some very agree- 
able letters from persons of importance, promising assist- 
ance. 1 He had already been joined by the tenants of Lord 
Nairn, and the Lairds of Gask and Aldie. The Robertsons 
of Struan, Blairfitty, and Cushievale, the Stuarts who in- 
habited the uplands of Perthshire, and many of the tenants 
of the Duke of A thole, raised by the Marquis of Tullibar- 
dine, now poured themselves into the tide of insurrection. 
In raising- the men of lower Perthshire, considerable diffi- 
culties were experienced by the chiefs and landlords. The 
Duke of Perth having ordered his tenants to contribute a 
man for every plough, is said, though with extremely little 
probability, to have shot one refractory person, in order to 
enforce his orders among the rest. Tullibardine, from the 
equivocal nature of his title, found still greater difficulty in 
raising the tenants upon those estates which he conceived 
to be his own. But perhaps no one experienced so much 
difficulty in his levies as the good Laird of Gask, though he 
was at the same time perhaps the person of all others the 
most anxious to provide men for the service of his beloved 
Prince. This enthusiastic Jacobite was, it seems, so ex- 
tremely incensed at the resistance he received from some of 
his tenants, that he laid an arrestment or inhibition upon 
their corn-fields, by way of trying if their interest would 
not oblige them to comply with his request. The case was 
still at issue, when Charles, in marching from Perth, ob- 
served the corn hanging dead ripe, and inquired the reason. 
He was informed that Gask had not only prohibited his 
tenants from cutting their grain, but would not permit their 
cattle to be fed upon it, so that these creatures were abso- 
lutely starving. He instantly leaped from the saddle, ex- 
claiming, ' This will never do/ and began to gather a 
quantity of the corn. Giving this to his horse, he said to 
those that were by that he had thus broken Gask's inhibi- 
tion, and the farmers might now, upon his authority, pro- 
ceed to put the produce of their fields to its proper use. 2 

When Charles entered Perth, he had only a single guinea 
in his pocket. 3 During his march hitherto, he had freely 
given his chiefs what sums they thought necessary for the 
subsistence of the men; and his purse was now exhausted, 
but fortunately at a moment when it was in his power to 
replenish it. By sending detachments of his men to various 

1 A Mr Johnstone, who afterwards wrote a memoir of the insurrection, 
also joined the Prince at Perth. 

2 Tradition. 3 Home's Works, iii. 43. 



Charles's descent upon the lowlands. 61 

towns at no great distance, he raised some of the public 
money ; and several of his Edinburgh friends now came in 
with smaller, but less reluctant subsidies. From the city of 
Perth he exacted £500. 

Perhaps the most important accession to his force which 
Charles received at Perth was that of Lord George Murray, 
whom his brother, the Marquis of Tullibardine, brought 
down from Athole the day after the army entered the city. 
This gentleman was advanced to middle age, and had been 
in arms for the Stuarts at the affair of Glenshiel in 1719. 
Having served abroad since, in the Sardinian service, he 
possessed considerable military experience ; but his talents 
and enterprising character were such as to render knowledge 
of his profession comparatively a matter of secondary 
moment. Charles had so much confidence in his abilities, 
as immediately to make him lieutenant-general of his army 
— a trust for which he soon proved himself admirably 
qualified. 1 

Charles was compelled to linger eight days at Perth, by 
the double necessity of providing himself with money, and 
gathering the Perthshire clans together. He did not, how- 
ever, spend his time in vain. He seized this opportunity 
of reducing the ill-assorted elements of his army to some 
kind of order, and exerted himself to get the men instructed 
in the various evolutions of military discipline. The sturdy 
mountaineers were, as may be easily imagined, somewhat 
intractable, displaying great inaptitude in the conventional 
rules by which a whole body is to be governed, though, at 
the same time, every individual evinced a readiness and 
dexterity in the use of his own arms far beyond what is 
seen in ordinary soldiers. At a review held on the North 
Inch, a common near the town (September 7,) Charles was 
observed to smile occasionally at the awkwardness of their 
general motions ; at the same time he complimented their 
agility and wild elegance by calling them 'his stags? 2 
Lord George Murray now took some pains to furnish 
the men with many things which, though they make but 
a poor appearance in a romantic narrative, are yet emi- 
nently useful during the actual progress of a campaign. 
Amongst these were provisions, and the means of carrying 
them. He caused each man to be provided with a sacken 
knapsack, large enough to carry a peck of oatmeal — the food 
chiefly depended upon by these hardy soldiers. He also 

1 Lord George Murray was paternal grandfather to the late Duke of 
Athole. 

2 Henderson's History of the Rebellion, 37. 



62 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

took measures for supplying* meal and knapsacks to the 
clans who were on their march to join the Prince. By no 
other means could this little army have long" been kept 
together. 

It would almost appear that Charles occupied himself so 
closely in business while at Perth, as to have little time for 
amusement. Not only did he make a point of rising* early 
every morning" to drill his troops, but it is told of him that, 
being* one night invited to a ball by the gentlewomen of 
Perth, he had no sooner danced one measure, than he made 
his bow, and hastily withdrew, alleging* the necessity of 
visiting* his sentry-posts. From a newspaper of the time, 1 
it appears that he attended divine service on Sunday the 
8th of September, when a Mr Armstrong, probably a 
clergyman of the Scottish Episcopal Church, preached 
from the text (Isaiah, xiv. 1, 2.) — i For the Lord will have 
mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them 
in their own land : and the strangers shall be joined with 
them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And 
the people shall take them, and bring* them to their place ; 
and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of 
the Lord for servants and handmaids : and they shall take 
them captives, whose captives they were ; and they shall rule 
over their oppressors.' The nature of the discourse may be 
easily conjectured from the text. It is said that this was 
the first time the Prince had ever attended a Protestant 
place of worship. 

Many of the strangers whom Charles found at Perth 
attending the fair procured passports from him, to protect 
their persons and goods in passing through the country. 
To all these persons he displayed great courteousness of 
manner. One of them, a linen-draper from London, had 
some conversation with the youthful adventurer, who de- 
sired him to inform his fellow-citizens that he expected to 
see them at St James's in the course of two months. 2 

1 The Caledonian Mercury. 2 Edinburgh Evening Courant. 



ALARM OF EDINBURGH. 63 

CHAPTER VI. 

ALARM OF EDINBURGH. 

Can you think to front your enemies' revenges with the easy groans of old 
women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with the palsied interces- 
sion of such a weak dotard as you seem to he ? Can you think to "blow out 
the intended fire of your city with such weak breath as this ? Coriolanus. 

For upwards of a week after Cope's march into the 
Highlands, the people of Edinburgh had felt all the anxiety 
which civilians usually entertain regarding an impending 
action ; but as yet they expressed little alarm about their 
own particular safety. The common talk of the day 
amongst the Whigs was, that Cope would soon l cock up 
the Pretender's beaver' — that he would speedily 'give a 
good account of the Highland host' — and other vauntings, 
indicating great confidence. To speak in another strain 
was considered treason. Prudence joined with inclination, 
on the part of the Jacobites, to keep this tone of the public 
mind undisturbed. They knew it to be Charles's wish that 
the low countries, and also the government, should be as 
little alarmed as possible by his proceedings. They there- 
fore conspired with the zealous Whigs to spread a general 
impression of his weakness. 

The better to lull the town, and consequently the whole 
nation, into security, Charles, or some of his officers, thought 
proper to despatch a person of gentlemanly rank from 
their camp in Lochaber, with a report calculated to increase 
this dangerous confidence. They selected for this purpose 
James Macgregor, or Drummond, son to the celebrated 
Rob Roy; a man of not the purest character, but who 
seemed eligible on account of his address, and because he 
enjoyed some confidence amongst the Whig party. By 
way of making himself as useful as possible, Macgregor 
volunteered at the same time to carry with him to Edin- 
burgh copies of the Prince's proclamations and manifestoes, 
which he thought he should easily be able to get printed 
there, and disseminated amongst the friends of the cause. 
He reached Edinburgh on the 26th, and, being immediately 
admitted into the presence of the civil and civic officers, 
reported that the Highlanders, when he left them a day or 
two ago, were not above 1500 strong at most. As far as 
he could judge of them, they would run at the first onset of 



64 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the royal army, being* chiefly old men and boys, and very 
ill armed. When he had performed this part of his duty, 
he lost no time in setting about the other. His papers were 
printed by one Drummond, a zealous Jacobite; 1 and so 
speedily were they diffused throughout the town, that the 
magistrates were obliged, within three or four days after 
the arrival of this faithful messenger, to issue a proclama- 
tion offering a high reward for the discovery of the printer. 

Macgregor's report, though partially successful in assur- 
ing the citizens, who immediately learned it through the 
newspapers, was not so completely effective with the public 
authorities as to prevent them from taking a measure next 
day which they had for some time contemplated — that of 
applying to the king for permission to raise a regiment, to 
be paid by voluntary subscription of the inhabitants, with 
which they might at once defend their property and ad- 
vance his majesty's interests, in case of the town being 
attacked. Their previous security, however, was about 
this time slightly disturbed by a piece of intelligence 
brought to town by a Highland street porter, who had been 
visiting his friends in the north. This man declared that 
when he saw the insurgents in Lochaber, their camp was 
as long as the space between Leith and the Calton Hill (at 
least a mile) ; 2 a local illustration, which inspired a much 
more respectful idea of the chevalier's forces than any they 
had yet entertained. 

It was not till the 31st of August that the alarm of the 
city of Edinburgh became serious. On that day the inha- 
bitants received intelligence of Cope's evasion of the High- 
land forces at Dalwhinnie, and of the consequent march of 
the chevalier upon the low country. They had previously 
looked upon the insurrection as but a more formidable kind 
of riot, which would soon be quelled, and no more heard 
of ; but when they saw that a regular army had found it ne- 
cessary to decline fighting' with the insurgents, who were 
consequently left at liberty to disturb the open country, 
it began to be looked upon in a much more serious light. 
Their alarm was, if possible, increased next day (Sunday, 
the 1st of September), by the Duke of Athole coming sua- 

1 Drummond, some years afterwards, fell under the anger of the govern- 
ment for similar proceedings, and had his printing-office shut up ; on which 
occasion the workmen being thrown idle, and public sympathy, at least 
with one party, being excited in their behalf, it was suggested to them to act 
the drama of the Gentle Shepherd, which had not before been represented on 
the stage, though many years published. Thus Drummond's men became 
the first performers of this celebrated pastoral. 

2 Caledonian Mercury. Henderson's History of the Rebellion, 37- 



ALARM OF EDINBURGH. 65 

denly to town on his way from Blair, which, as already 
mentioned, he had left on the approach of the Highlanders. 
It was reported that his Grace had been compelled to take 
this step with greater precipitation than would have other- 
wise been necessary, by receiving a letter from his brother, 
the marquis, calling upon him to deliver up the house and 
estate which he had so long possessed unjustly. But the 
venerable Thomas Ruddiman, who gave currency to this 
rumour by means of his paper, the Caledonian Mercury, 
was obliged during the same week to acknowledge it false, 
beg the duke's pardon, and pay a fine of two guineas, be- 
sides being imprisoned for two days. 

The friends of government now began to make prepara- 
tions for the defence of the capital. 

1 Piled deep and massive, close and high,' 

and chiefly situated upon a steep and isolated hill, Edin- 
burgh was then partly surrounded by a wall, and partly by 
a lake. The wall was of little use but to check smuggling, 
or evasion of the city customs ; it had no embrasures for 
cannon, and part of it was overlooked by lines of lofty 
houses, forming the suburbs, while the lake was fordable 
in many places. The friends of the Hanover succession 
were nevertheless of opinion that the city was capable of 
making a defence, provided that the inhabitants were de- 
termined upon it, and that arms were obtained from govern- 
ment. It was at least possible, they thought, to hold out 
until Cope's troops should come to their relief. On the 
other hand, a considerable section of the inhabitants, in- 
cluding the lord provost, Mr Archibald Stewart, and others 
of the magistracy, were Jacobites, though necessarily mak- 
ing no outward demonstration of such politics. Everything 
which they could safely or plausibly do to discourage the 
idea of defending the town was done ; and doubtless their 
efforts were attended with some success. Burghal politics 
came in to add to the difficulties of the time. Opposed to 
the existing magistracy were the materials of a Whig one, 
which had been excluded from power for live years ; at its 
head was Mr George Drummond, a man of virtuous and 
benevolent character, who had fought in behalf of govern- 
ment at Sheriffmuir. The time was approaching when, ac- 
cording to the custom of the burgh, a new election of magis- 
trates should take place ; and it was obviously the policy 
of the Whigs to profess an eagerness for the defence of the 
town. On the other hand, the existing magistracy, con- 
sidering this as a mere mode of party warfare, or an appeal 
vol. v. e 



66 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

to mob feelings, were the more inclined to go upon the 
opposite side. ' Defend the town/ or ( not defend the town/ 
thus became party cries for the ins and outs of burghal office ; 
and it would have been difficult for any cool onlooker to 
say whether the Whigs, in their profession of a wish to 
keep out Prince Charles, or the opposite party, in express- 
ing their belief that the town was indefensible, were the 
least sincere. 

The living force available for defence actually appears 
to have been of no great amount, although many more 
formidable enemies have been resisted with something 
much less. Now that Cope, with his infantry, was off 
the field, the whole of the regular forces in the south 
of Scotland, besides the invalids who garrisoned the for- 
tresses, consisted of two regiments of dragoons — Hamil- 
ton's at Edinburgh, and Gardiner's at Stirling, both of 
them newly raised. In Edinburgh there was a body of 
military police, or gensd'armes, called the Town -Guard, 
generally amounting to 96 men, but now increased to 126 : 
these were for the most part elderly men, who had never 
been active soldiers, but they had the advantage of being 
pretty well disciplined. There was another body of militia 
connected with the city, called the Trained Bands, the 
members of which, exceeding 1000 in number, were ordi- 
nary citizens possessed of uniforms, in which they appeared 
once a-year to fire off their pieces in honour of the king*'s 
birthday, but which none of them had adopted with the 
prospect of ever becoming active soldiers, or, indeed, with 
any other view than to enjoy the civic dinner which was 
given to them on that joyous anniversary. The Trained 
Bands had, at their first institution in the reign of King 
James VI., worn defensive armour, and carried the long 
Scottish spear; but in these degenerate days they only 
assumed a simple uniform, and were provided with fire- 
locks so old, as scarcely to be fit for service. To give the 
reader some idea of the military prowess of these citizen- 
soldiers, an extract may be made from a pamphlet of the 
day. 1 The author of this tract says that, when a boy, he 
used to see the Trained Bands drawn up on the High Street 
to honour the natal day of Britain's majesty, on which 
occasions, he affirms, it was common for any one who was 
bolder than the rest, or who wished to give himself airs 
before his wife or mistress, to fire off his piece in the street, 
without authority of his officers : and c I always observed,' 

1 Account of the Behaviour of Archibald Stewart. London, 1748. 



ALARM OF EDINBURGH. 67 

says the pamphleteer, ' they took care to shut their eyes 
before venturing on that military exploit ; ? though he im- 
mediately afterwards remarks in a note, their fear was 
perhaps better grounded than he imagined, considering 
the danger there was of their firelocks bursting about their 
ears. 

To increase this hopeful force, the state officers had in- 
stigated the magistrates, as already mentioned, to raise a 
regiment, which was to be paid by public subscription. 
The royal l permission was not procured for this purpose 
till the 9th of September, on which day a subscription-paper 
was laid before the citizens, and a dram sent through the 
town and its neighbourhood to enlist men. But it is un- 
usual to yield to the solicitations of recruiting-sergeants for 
the direct purpose of fighting a severe action on the suc- 
ceeding week. As may be easily imagined, more fortune 
than life was volunteered on the present occasion. The 
subscription-paper filled almost immediately; but, after a 
week, only about 200 men had been procured. 

Besides this force, which was dignified with the name of 
the Edinburgh Regiment, a number of the loyal inhabitants 
associated themselves as volunteers into a separate band or 
regiment, for which 400 were ultimately collected. The 
discipline of all these men was wretched, or rather they 
had no discipline. The members of the Edinburgh Regi- 
ment were, in general, desperate persons, to whom the pro- 
mised pay was a temptation, and who cared nothing for 
the cause in which they were eng'aged. The volunteers, 
on the other hand, were all decent tradesmen, or youths 
drawn from the counter and desk, inspired no doubt with 
a love of liberty and the Protestant religion, but little 
qualified to oppose the approaching Highlanders. 

One circumstance may here be mentioned, which seems 
to have had a great effect in determining the subsequent 
events ; namely, the ignorance which prevailed in the Low- 
lands regarding the real character of the insurgents. The 
people were, indeed, aware that, far in the north, there 
existed tribes of men living each under the rule of its own 
chief, wearing* a peculiar dress, speaking an unknown lan- 
guage, and going armed even in their most ordinary and 
peaceful avocations. They occasionally saw specimens of 
these following the droves of black cattle, which were the 
sole exportable commodity of their country — plaided, bon- 
neted, belted, and brogued — and driving their bullocks, as 

J The king arrived in great haste from Hanover on the 31st of August. 



68 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Virgil is said to have spread his manure, with an air of 
great dignity and consequence. 1 To their immediate neigh- 
bours they were known by more fierce and frequent causes 
of acquaintance ; by the forays which they made upon the 
inhabitants of the plains, and the tribute or protection- 
money which they exacted from those whose possessions 
they spared. Yet it might be generally said that little was 
known of them either in the Lowlands of Scotland or in 
England, and that the little which was known was only 
calculated to inspire sensations of fear and dislike. The 
idea, therefore, that a band of wild Highlanders, as they 
were called, were descending to work their will upon the 
peaceful inhabitants of the plains, occasioned a consterna- 
tion on the present occasion such as it is now difficult to 
conceive, but which must have proved very fatal to the 
wish which the friends of government entertained of de- 
fending the country. 



CHAPTER VII. 
Charles's march upon Edinburgh. 

Fr. Her. — Ye men of Angiers, open wide your gates, 
And let young Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, in. 

King John. 

Having recruited both his purse and his muster-roll, 
and done something towards the organisation and discipline 
of his army, Charles left Perth on Wednesday the 11th of 
September. The direct road from Perth to Edinburgh was 
by the well-known passage across the Firth of Forth called 
the Queen's Ferry, and the cities were little more than forty 
miles distant from each other. But as all the boats upon 
that estuary had been carefully brought to the south side, 
and as he could not have passed, at any rate, without being 
exposed to the fire of a war-vessel lying in the firth, as 
well as to whatever danger was to be apprehended from 
Gardiner's dragoons, who awaited his approach, he was 
obliged to take a more circuitous and safe route by a ford- 
able part of the river above Stirling. Marching, therefore, 
to Dumblane, he was joined upon the way by sixty of the 

1 Sir Walter Scott ; Quarterly Review. 



Charles's march upon Edinburgh. 69 

Macdonalds of Glencoe, in addition to as many more who 
had previously come to his standard ; and by forty Mac- 
gregors, the retainers . of Macgregor of Glencairnaig, who 
had deputed their command to James Mor Macgregor or 
Drummond, the same person who did the service at Edin- 
burgh which has been before mentioned. 1 

The Prince remained a day at Dumblane, waiting' till a 
portion of his army, which he had left at Perth, should 
come up to join the main body. On the evening of the 
12th, the whole encamped about a mile to the south of 
Dumblane. 

Charles proceeded on Friday, the 13th, towards the Ford 
of Frew. He passed by Doune, where an incident occurred 
which showed that he was at least the elected sovereign of 
the ladies of Scotland. At the house of Mr Edmondstone 
of Cambus, in the neighbourhood of Doune, the gentle- 
women of the district of Monteith had assembled to see him 
pass ; and he was invited to stop and partake of some 
refreshment. He drew up before the house, and, without 
alighting from his horse, drank a glass of wine to the 
healths of all the fair ladies present. The Misses Edmond- 
stone, daughters of the host, acted on this occasion as servi- 
tresses, glad to find an opportunity of approaching a person 
of whom they had heard so much ; and when Charles had 
drunk his wine, and restored his glass to the plate which 
they held for him, they begged, in respectful terms, the 
honour of kissing his royal highness's hand. This favour 
he granted with his usual grace ; but Miss Clementina Ed- 
mondstone, cousin of the other young ladies, and then on a 
visit at Doune, thought she might obtain a much more 
satisfactory taste of royalty, and made bold to ask permis- 
sion ' to pree his royal highness's mouV Charles did not 
at first understand the homely Scottish phrase in which 
this last request was made ; but it was no sooner explained 
to him than he took her in his arms and gave her a hearty 
kiss— to the no small vexation, it is added, of the other 
ladies, who had contented themselves with so much less 
liberal a share of princely grace. 2 

At this period of his career Charles lost an expected 
adherent in a mysterious manner. Stewart of Glenbuckie, 
the head of a small sept of that family in Balquidder, and 
Macgregor of Glencairnaig, chief of his ancient and famous 
clan, were both passing Leny House (above Callander) 

1 Gartmore MS., quoted in Birt's Letters (2d ed.), ii. 351. 

2 Nimmo's History of Stirlingshire, edited by the Rev. Mr Macgregor Stir- 
ling, p. 564. 



70 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

with their respective i fallowings/ to join the Prince, when 
Mr Buchanan of Arnprior, proprietor of the house, came 
out and invited the two gentlemen in to spend the night. 
Glencairnaig positively refused to stop, and marched on 
with his retainers ; but Glenbuckie consented to accept of 
Arnprior's hospitality. He supped with his host, appa- 
rently in good spirits, and was in due time conducted to his 
bedroom. According to another account, Mr Buchanan 
went to meet Mr Stewart and his party in Strathyre, where 
they had a dispute about the majorship of the Duke of 
Perth's regiment. 1 In any case, Stewart lodged that night 
in Leny House, and was found next morning in his bed 
shot dead, with a discharged pistol in his hand. Mr 
Buchanan alleged that the unfortunate gentleman was the 
author of his own death ; but was not generally believed. 
Glenbuckie's men took up the body of their master, carried 
it home to their own glen, and did not afterwards join the 
Prince. 2 Arnprior also abstained from joining in the en- 
terprise, though well inclined to it. Notwithstanding prac- 
tical neutrality, he was seized a short while before the battle 
of Culloden, and conducted to Carlisle, where an unsigned 
letter of his, which had been intercepted on its way to the 
Highland army, proved sufficient, with the odium of Glen- 
buckie's suspected murder, to procure his condemnation. It 
is but justice to the memory of this gentleman to add, that, 
immediately before his death, he uttered, in presence of a 
clergyman, a solemn denial of all share in the death of Mr 
Stewart. 3 

The Ford of Frew, by which Charles had to cross the 
Forth, was a shallow part of the river, formed by the efflux 
of the Boquhan Water, about eight miles above Stirling. 
It was expected that Gardiner's dragoons would attempt to 
dispute the passage with the Highlanders ; but those doughty 
heroes, who had hitherto talked of cutting the whole host in 
pieces as soon as it approached the Lowlands, now thought 
proper to retire upon Stirling. Charles, therefore, found 
no opposition to prevent him from taking this decisive and 
intrepid step, which Was, everything considered, much the 
same to him as the passage of the Bubicon had been to a 
greater person. Hitherto he had been in a land where the 
Highlanders had a natural advantage over any troops which 
might be sent to oppose them ; but he was now come to the 
frontier of a country where, if they fought at all, they must 

1 Lyon in Mourning, MS. 

2 Information from a daughter of Glenbuckie, who was alive in 1827. 

3 The whole declaration is in the Lyon in Mourning, MS. in my possession. 



Charles's march upon Edinburgh. 71 

fight on equal, or perhaps inferior terms. The adventurer's 
heart was, however, screwed up to every hazard. Some of 
his officers had just questioned the propriety of venturing 
into a country so open and hostile ; and various less deci- 
sive measures were proposed, and warmly advocated. But 
Charles was resolved to make promptitude and audacity his 
sole tactics and counsellors. Coming' to the Drink of the 
river, he drew his sword, nourished it in the air, and point- 
ing" to the other side, walked into the stream with an air of 
resolution. The river having" been somewhat reduced by 
a course of dry weather, he found no difficulty in wading" 
across. When he reached the opposite side, he paused upon 
the bank, 1 and congratulated every successive detachment 
as it reached the land. 

Charles dined in the afternoon of this day at Leckie 
House, the seat of a Jacobite gentleman named Moir, 2 who 
had been seized on the preceding night in his bed, and 
hurried to Stirling Castle by the dragoons, on suspicion that 
he was preparing to entertain the chevalier. 3 The remain- 
der of the day's march was in a direction due south, to the 
Moor of Touch ; and it was for a time uncertain whether 
Charles designed to attack Edinburgh or Glasgow. The 
latter presented great temptations, on account of its being 
unprotected, and quite as wealthy as Edinburgh ; and 
Charles had sufficient reason to owe it a grudge, on account 
of its zeal against his family on all occasions when such 
zeal could be displayed. But the eclat of seizing the seat of 
government, and the assurance of his Edinburgh friends 
that he would easily be able to do so, proved decisive in 
confirming his own original wishes to that effect. He, 
however, sent off a detachment to demand a subsidy of 
£15,000 from the commercial capital. 4 

1 Dougal Graham's Metrical History, 15. 

2 Mr Moir had married the heiress of Leckie : his own patrimonial estate 
was a very small one, at some distance. He would sometimes point out the 
latter to his friends at Leckie House, saying, with true Jacobite wit, ' Yon is 
my Hanover.' 

3 Lockhart Papers, ii. 487- 

4 The conduct of the insurgent army on first entering the Lowlands, is 
minutely portrayed by Dougal Graham, the metrical historian of the insur- 
rection, who seems to have been present, and observed their proceedings. 
The reader will be surprised to find young Locheil, with all his amiable qua- 
lities, represented as shooting one of his clan for petty theft : — 

1 Here for a space they took a rest, 
And had refreshment of the best 
The country round them could afford, 
Though many found but empty board. 
As sheep and cattle were drove away, 
Yet hungry men sought for their prey ; 



72 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

The Highland army moved eastwards next day, fetching 1 
a compass to the south of Stirling, in order to avoid the 
castle guns. Meanwhile Colonel Gardiner, who had re- 
treated from Stirling the preceding night, continued to 
retire "before them, designing to fall back upon the other 
regiment, which was now lying near Edinburgh. In this 
day's march the Prince passed over the field of Bannock- 
burn, where his illustrious ancestor, Bruce, gained the 
greatest victory that adorns the Scottish annals. He spent 
the night succeeding this brief day's march in Bannock- 
burn House, the seat of Sir Hugh Paterson, a gentleman 
attached in the most enthusiastic manner to his cause. Sir 
Hugh was descended from the last archbishop of Glasgow, 
and was married to a sister of the Earl of Marr, who com- 
manded the insurgent army in 1715. The army lay upon 
the neighbouring field of Sauchie, where King James III., 
in 1488, was defeated and slain by his rebellious subjects. 1 
From this place Charles sent a message to the magis- 
trates of Stirling, who submitted to him, and sent out pro- 
visions to be sold to the army. 

On the 15th the Prince proceeded to Falkirk, where his 
army lay all night among* some broom to the east of Cal- 
lander House. He himself lodged in that mansion, where 
he was kindly entertained, and assured of faithful service, 
by the Earl of Kilmarnock. His lordship informing Charles 
that Gardiner's dragoons intended next day to dispute the 
passage of Linlithgow Bridge, Charles despatched a band of 
900 well-armed Highlanders to attack him, who, without 
delay, marched during the night on this expedition. But 
the dragoons did not wait to come to blows. They retired 
precipitately to Kirkliston, eight miles nearer Edinburgh ; 

Took milk and butter, kirn and cheese, 
On all kinds of eatables they seize : 
And he who could not get a share, 
Sprang to the hills like dogs for hare ; 
There shot the sheep and made them fall, 
Whirled off the skin, and that was all ; 
Struck up fires, and boiled the flesh ; 
With salt and pepper did not fash. 
This did enrage the Camerons' chief, 
To see his men so play the thief ; 
And finding one into the act, 
He fired, and shot him through the back ; 
Then to the rest himself addressed— 
" This is your lot, I do protest, 
Whoe'er amongst you wrongs a man. 
Pay what you get, I tell you plain ; 
For yet we know not friend or foe, 
Nor how all things may chance to go." '—P. 16. 
1 Lockhart Papers, ii. 444. 



Charles's march upon Edinburgh. 73 

and the Highlanders entered Linlithgow without disturb- 
ance before break of day. 

Charles brought up the remainder of the army to Lin- 
lithgow about ten o'clock that forenoon, when he was only 
sixteen miles from Edinburgh. It was Sunday, and the 
people were about to attend worship in their ancient church; 
but the arrival of so distinguished a visitor suspended their 
pious duties for at least one day. Linlithgow, perhaps on 
account of its having been so long a seat of Scottish royalty, 
was possessed by a Jacobite spirit ; and on the present occa- 
sion, it is said that even some of the magistrates could not 
restrain their loyal enthusiasm. Charles was conducted in 
triumph to the palace, where a handsome entertainment was 
prepared for him by Mrs Glen Gordon, the keeper of the 
house, who, in honour of the visit, set the palace well a- 
flowing with wine, of which she invited all the respectable 
inhabitants of the burgh to partake. The Prince mingled 
in their festivities with his usual grace. 1 

The Highland army, at four o'clock in the afternoon, 
marched to a rising ground between three and four miles 
to the eastward (near the twelfth milestone from Edin- 
burgh), where they bivouacked, while the Prince slept 
in a neighbouring house. 2 They proceeded next morning 
(Monday the 17th) towards Edinburgh, from which they 
were now distant only four hours' march. 

On reaching- Corstorphine, Charles thought proper, in 
order to avoid the guns of Edinburgh Castle, to strike off 

1 Mr Bucknay, provost of Linlithgow in 1745, was a keen Jacobite. On 
the 10th of June preceding the commencement of the insurrection, he had 
attended a sort of fete given in the palace by Mrs Glen Gordon, in honour of 
the old chevalier's birthday, when a large bonfire was kindled in the inner 
court, the fountain in the centre adorned with flowers and green boughs, and 
King James's health drunk. When the Highland army drew near, the 
provost fled towards Edinburgh ; but his wife and daughters remained, and 
waited upon the Prince, with tartan gowns and white cockades, and had the 
honour of kissing his hand at the cross.— See Jacdbitism Triumphant; a pam- 
phlet dated 1753, which appears to have been occasioned by the following 
ridiculous circumstance. Some of the Jacobite gentry around Linlithgow 
suspecting that the postmaster of the town (a notorious loyalist) was in the 
habit of opening their letters and exposing them to government, Mr James 
Dundas of Philipstoun wrote a letter to Provost Bucknay, of which the fol- 
lowing are the ipsissima verba : — 

' Sir — Is it not very hard that you and I cannot keep up a correspondence 
for that damned villain of a postmaster ? (Signed) Ja. Duxdas.' 

They expected that the object of their suspicions would open this epistle, 
and be overwhelmed with shame and rage. To their surprise, the letter 
passed inviolate. There remained, however, the joke, of which the post- 
master became aware some years afterwards ; and the pamphlet is a sort of 
memorial arising out of the process for defamation which he then insti- 
tuted against Mr Dundas before the Court of Session. 

2 Lockhart Papers, ii. 445, 



74 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

into a by-road leading in a southerly direction towards the 
little village of Slateford. His men there bivouacked for 
the night in a field called Gray's Park, which at that time 
bore a crop of pease nearly ripe. The tradition of Slateford 
relates, that the proprietor of the ground applied to Charles 
at his lodgings for some indemnification for the loss of his 
crop. He was asked if he would take the Prince Begent's 
bill for the sum, to be paid when the troubles of the country 
should be concluded. The man hesitated at the name of 
the Prince Kegent, and said he would prefer a bill from 
some person whom he knew. Charles smiled at his caution, 
and asked if he would take the name of the Duke of Perth, 
who was his countryman, and at the same time a more 
credit-worthy man than he could pretend to be. The rustic 
accepted a promissory note from the duke. 



CHAPTEB VIII. 

CAPTURE OF EDINBURGH. 

E. Phi.— Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates ; 
Let in that amity which you have made. 

King John. 

The delay of the Highland army at Perth for a time sub- 
dued the alarm which had been excited in Edinburgh by the 
first intelligence of Charles's descent upon the Lowlands. 
But when he set out from that city, and was understood to 
be marching upon Edinburgh, all the terrors of the citizens 
were renewed, at least of that part of them who looked upon 
the Highland army as a public enemy, or who conceived 
their entrance into the city to be inconsistent with the 
safety of private property. On the other hand, the Jacobite 
part of the population could scarcely conceal their joy at 
the news of every successive day's march which Charles 
made towards the city. 

The conflicting ferment into which the passions of all 
ranks of people were thrown by the course of public events, 
was now increased in a great degree by another agitating 
matter — the election of heads of incorporations, which 
began to take place on the 10th of September, as prepara- 
tory to the nomination of the magistrates. So engrossing* 
a matter was this, that the magistrates were obliged to dis- 
continue the repairs which they were making upon the city 



CAPTURE OF EDINBURGH. 75 

walls, because it was impossible to get workmen to attend 
to their respective occupations. 

Sir John Cope had sent one of his captains from Inverness 
early in the month, to order a number of transports to sail 
from Leith to Aberdeen, in which he might bring back his 
men to the shores of Lothian. These vessels sailed on the 
10th, escorted by a ship of war ; and as the weather was 
excellent, they were expected to return very soon with an 
army of relief. From that day the people of Edinburgh, 
according to Mr Home, were continually looking up with 
anxiety to the vanes and weathercocks, watching the 
direction of the wind. 

As no certain dependence could be placed upon Cope's 
arrival, the Whigs did not, in the meantime, neglect in 
aught the training of their civic levies. Drills took place 
twice a-day. Professor Maclaurin, the celebrated mathe- 
matician, exerted all his faculties in completing the works 
of defence which he had designed ; and the walls began 
to bristle with old pieces of cannon, which had been hastily 
collected from the country around. The various gates 
or ports of the town were all strongly barricaded, and a 
guard appointed to each. If we are to believe this party, 
all their measures were thwarted and clogged by difficulties 
thrown in their way by the provost. To one proposal, he 
would object that he had no authority ; to another, that it 
was treasonable — adding, with a sneer, that i he knew no 
treason but what the law had made so : ' some efforts of 
zeal he scoffed at ; others he held as more productive of 
danger than safety. Personally, he afforded no active en- 
couragement to any plan of a defensive nature : some were 
suspiciously blundered in the working : for example, in the 
digging of a ditch at the Well-house Towner, under the 
castle, the earth was thrown outwards, so as to be favourable 
to the assailing, rather than to the defending party. Now, 
also, he gave countenance and publicity to every rumour 
which magnified the insurgent forces. The Whigs accuse 
him of having always had a set of Jacobites in his company, 
from whom he seemed to take counsel. Their advices were, 
on the other hand, listened to with reluctance. 

No incident of importance occurred in Edinburgh till 
Sunday the 15th, when, a false alarm reaching the city that 
the insurgents were advanced within eight miles, it was 
proposed that Hamilton's and Gardiner's regiments of 
dragoons should make a stand at Corstorphine, supported 
by a body of infantry composed of the volunteers, Edin- 
burgh Regiment, and'Town-Guard. 



76 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Public worship had commenced this day at the usual hour 
of ten, and the ministers were all preaching with swords by 
their sides, when the fire-bell was rung as a signal of ap- 
proaching danger, and the churches were instantly deserted 
by their congregations. The people found the volunteers 
ranked up in the Lawnmarket, ready to march out of town ; 
and immediately after, Hamilton's dragoons rode up the 
street, on their way from Leith to Corstorphine. These 
heroes clashed their swords against each other as they rode 
along, and displayed, in their language, the highest symp- 
toms of courage. The volunteers, put into heart by the 
formidable appearance of these squadrons, uttered a hearty 
huzza, and the people threw up their hats in the air. But 
an end was soon put to this affectation of bravery. The 
mothers and sisters of the volunteers began to take alarm at 
seeing them about to march out to battle, and with tears, 
cries, and tender embraces, implored them not to hazard 
their precious lives. Even their male relations saw fit to 
advise them against so dangerous a measure, which, they 
said, staked their valuable persons against a worthless rabble. 
Many then began to demur, saying that they had engaged 
to defend the town, but not to march out of it. At this 
juncture Captain Ex-Provost Drummond, anxious to stop 
the spreading murmurs, led off his company down the West 
Bow towards the West Port, trusting that the rest would 
follow. His astonishment was great when, on reaching 
the Port, and looking round, he found that, so far from 
other companies having followed, his own had melted 
away in the course of its brief march, and he had only 
a few of his immediate friends behind him. Some had 
gone back to the Lawnmarket ; others had slipped down 
closes, as lanes are called in Edinburgh, and thus va- 
nished. A city wag afterwards compared their march to 
the course of the Rhine, which at one place is a majestic 
river flowing through fertile fields, but, being continually 
drawn off by little canals, at last becomes a small rivulet, 
and almost ceases to be distinguishable before reaching the 
ocean. 1 

Drummond immediately sent back a lieutenant to know 
what had detained the regiment ; and this gentleman, out 
of all who remained in the Lawnmarket, found one hun- 
dred and forty-one who still retained some sense of either 
shame or courage, and professed to be willing to march 
out of town. The lieutenant brought these down to the 

1 True Account of the Conduct and Behaviour of Provost Archibald 
Stewart, p. 18. 



CAPTURE OF EDINBURGH. 77 

West Port, where, being* added to the Town -Guard 
and the half-fledged subscription -regiment, they made 
up a body of three hundred and sixty-three men, besides 
officers. 

Even this insignificant band was destined to be fur- 
ther reduced before making a movement against the ap- 
proaching danger. As they were standing within the 
West Port, before setting out, Dr Wishart, a clergyman 
of the city, and Principal of the College, came with several 
other clergymen, and conjured the volunteers to remain 
within the walls, and reserve themselves for the defence 
of the city. The words of the reverend man appealed 
directly to" the sentiments of the persons addressed ; only 
a few affected a courage which could listen to no pro- 
posals of peace. Happily, their manhood was saved the 
shame of a direct and point-blank retreat. Drummond 
having sent a message to the provost, bearing, that unless 
he gave his final permission for their march, they should 
not proceed, they were gratified with an answer, in which 
the provost congratulated them upon their resolution not 
to march ; on which Drummond withdrew, with the air 
of a man who is baulked by malice in a design for the 
public service ; and all the rest of the volunteers dispersed, 
except a few, chiefly hot-headed college youths, who re- 
solved to continue in arms till the end of the war. 1 Mean- 
while the Town-Guard and Edinburgh Eegiment, in num- 
ber one hundred and eighty men, marched out, by order of 
the provost, to support the dragoons at Corstorphine ; being 
the whole force which the capital of Scotland found it 
possible on this occasion to present against the descendant 
of its ancient kings. 

It was generally expected that an attack would be made 
during the succeeding night. The walls were guarded by 
six or seven hundred men, consisting of trained bands, 
volunteers, armed seceders, and a few of the Duke of Buc- 
cleuch's tenants ; but no pains were taken by the magis- 
trates to encourage, refresh, or duly relieve these men. If 
a Whig reporter is to be believed, it was even found that, 
at eleven at night, one of the gates — one presented to- 
wards the position of the enemy — was standing wide open, 

1 A story is told of one John Maclure, a writing-master, who, knowing 
the irresolution of his fellow- volunteers, and that they would never fight, 
assumed what the reviewer of Mr Home's Works (Quar. Rev. No. 71-) calls 
' a professional cuirass ;' namely, a quire of writing-paper, upon which he 
wrote, * This is the "body of John Maclure— pray give it a Christian burial.' 
The same humorist, finding himself jostled in the ranks at the West Port, 
called out, ' Stand about ! we're all alike burgesses here.' 



78 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

without a sentry ! l In the course of the night, the two re- 
giments of dragoons retired to a field betwixt Leith and Edin- 
burgh, and the infantry entered the city. Brigadier-General 
Fowkes arrived on the same night from London, in order 
to take the command of this little army of protection. He 
did so next morning ; and by an order from General Guest, 
governor of the castle, marched out to Colt Bridge, a place 
two miles to the west of the city, where he was joined in 
the course of the forenoon by the civic troops. 

A person who saw these soldiers at their post, 2 describes 
them as having been drawn up in the open field to the east 
of the bridge, in the form of a crescent, with Colonel 
Gardiner at their head, who, on account of his age and 
infirm health, was muffled in a wide blue surcoat, with a 
handkerchief drawn round his hat, and tied under his chin. 
The Edinburgh Regiment and Town-Guard he describes as 
looking extremely dismal ; but certainly their hearts could 
not be fainter than those of the dragoons. The event showed 
that few had escaped the panic of this momentous day. 

On retreating the preceding night to their quarters be- 
tween Edinburgh and Leith, the dragoons had left a small 
reconnoitring party at Corstorphine, which is about two 
miles in advance of Colt Bridge. It was with this party 
that the panic commenced. The insurgents, observing 
them on their approach to Corstorphine, sent forward one or 
two of their number on horseback to take a view of them, 
and bring a report of their number. These gentlemen, 
riding up pretty near, thought proper to fire their pistols 
towards the party ; and the poor dragoons immediately, in 
the greatest alarm, wheeled about, without returning a shot, 
and retired upon the main body at Colt Bridge, to whom 
they communicated all their fears. The whole party im- 
mediately broke up, and commenced a retreat, not to Edin- 
burgh, with the design of still defending it within the 
walls, but to the open country beyond it. In this move- 
ment, afterwards styled the Canter of Coltbrigg, the men 
rode over the ground now occupied by the New Town, 
where they were exposed to the view of the citizens. The 
Jacobites beheld the spectacle with ill-concealed pleasure, 
while the Whigs were proportionately discouraged. 

A clamour immediately rose in the streets, which, till 

1 This important fact is stated, from personal knowledge, by a volunteer, in a 
paper (now in my possession) which appears to have been drawn up for the 
information of the Solicitor- General. The gate was that called Bristo Port, 
which might be considered, on this occasion, as the second in point of im- 
portance. 

2 Henderson's History of the Rebellion, 43. 



CAPTURE OF EDINBURGH. 79 

this period, had been crowded with anxious faces ; and 
hundreds ran about, crying that it was madness to think 
of defending- the town after the dragoons had fled, and 
that if this measure was persisted in, i they should all be 
murdered V A message from the young chevalier 1 had 
previously been delivered to them, importing, that if they 
admitted him peaceably into the town, they should be 
civilly dealt with, but that resistance would subject them to 
all the pains of military usage ; and the general cry now 
was, that the town should be'surrendered. The provost, in 
returning from the West Port, where he had been giving 
orders, in consequence of the retreat of his militia, was 
assailed upon the street by multitudes of the alarmed in- 
habitants, and implored to call a meeting of the citizens, to 
determine what should be done. He consented with some 
reluctance to do so, or rather the people pressed so close 
around him and his council in their chamber, that a meet- 
ing was constituted without his consent. He then sent for 
the officers of the crown, whose advice he wished to ask ; 
but it was found, to the still greater consternation of the 
people, that all these gentlemen had deserted the city. 
The meeting was then adjourned to a larger place, the New 
Church Aisle, where the question of l Defend, or not defend, 
the town,' being put, by far the greater part of those pre- 
sent exclaimed in favour of the latter alternative, and all 
who attempted to urge the contrary measure were borne 
down by clamour. Whig reporters of the time call this a 
packed assembly ; but it appears to have fairly enough re- 
presented the general feeling of the moment. While the 
ferment was at its height, a letter was handed in from the 
door, addressed to the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Town- 
Council of Edinburgh. Deacon Orrock, a shoemaker, got 
this document into his hands, and announced that it was 
subscribed l Charles, P. R.' On this the provost rose, and 
saying he could not be present at the reading of such a 
letter, left the assembly. He was, however, prevailed upon, 
after some time, to return, and permit the letter to be read, 
when it was found to run as follows : — 

' From our Camp, 16th September 1745. 
Being now in a condition to make our way into the 
capital of his Majesty's ancient kingdom of Scotland, we 

1 Delivered between ten and eleven in the forenoon by Mr Alves, a gentle- 
man of Edinburgh, who had passed the Highland army on the road, and 
been intrusted with it by the Duke of Perth. Mr Alves was put into prison 
that afternoon by the provost, for having been so imprudent as to communi- 
cate the message to the people on the streets, instead of confining it to his 
lordship's own ear. 



80 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

hereby summon you to receive us, as you are in duty bound 
to do ; and in order to it, we hereby require you, on receipt 
of this, to summon the Town-Council, and to take proper 
measures for securing* the peace of the city, which we are 
very desirous to protect. But if you suffer any of the 
usurper's troops to enter the town, or any of the cannon, 
arms, or ammunition, now in it (whether belonging to the 
public or to private persons) to be carried off, we shall take it 
as a breach of your duty, and a heinous offence against the 
king and us, and shall resent it accordingly. We promise 
to preserve all the rights and liberties of the city, and the 
particular property of every one of his Majesty's subjects. 
But if any opposition be made to us, we cannot answer for 
the consequences, being firmly resolved, at any rate, to 
enter the city ; and in that case, if any of the inhabitants 
are found in arms against us, they must not expect to be 
treated as prisoners of war. Charles, P. R.' 

The tenor of this letter decided the meeting in their pro- 
posal for a capitulation, and a deputation, headed by Bailie 
Gavin Hamilton (father of the late ingenious inquirer into 
the national debt), was despatched to Slateford, where they 
understood Charles to have taken up his quarters for the 
night, with power to intreat time for deliberation. 

In the course of the afternoon, when the inhabitants were 
violently debating in the New Church Aisle, a gentleman, 
whose person was not recognised by any one, rode up the 
West Bow upon a gray horse, and rushing rapidly along 
the lines of the volunteers, where they were standing in 
the Lawnmarket, cried with a loud voice that he had seen 
the Highlanders, and they were 16,000 strong ! Without 
stopping to be questioned, he was out of sight in a moment ; 
but the impression he made upon the faint-hearted volun- 
teers was decisive. Four companies immediately marched 
up to the Castle Hill, and surrendered their arms to General 
Guest, from whom they had received them ; and their ex- 
ample was speedily followed by all the different bodies of 
militia that had been supplied with arms from the castle 
magazine. When this transaction was completed, Edin- 
burgh might be said to have virtually resigned all hope of 
defence, though the Trained Bands still continued upon the 
walls, with their rusty firelocks in their hands, and the 
gates were still barricaded. 

Throughout these scenes of civic pusillanimity, there 
were not wanting instances of vigorous resolution and con- 
sistent loyalty. Mr Joseph Williamson, an advocate (son 



CAPTURE OF EDINBURGH, 81 

to the celebrated Mass David Williamson, minister of the 
West Church of Edinburgh during- the reigns of the last 
Charles and James), who had been intrusted with the keys 
of the gates, on account of his office of town-clerk, on being 
asked by the provost to deliver up his charge, absolutely 
refused to do so ; and when commanded peremptorily by his 
lordship, implored that he might be permitted at least to 
escape over the walls, so as not to share in what he con- 
sidered the general disgrace of the city. 1 A similar enthu- 
siast, by name Dr Stevenson, though he had long been bed- 
rid through age and disease, sat for some days, as one of 
the guards, at the Xetherbow Port, in his arm-chair! 2 

The deputies, who had gone out in a carriage to Slateford 
at eight o'clock, returned at ten, with a letter from Charles, 
reiterating his demand to be peaceably admitted into the 
town, and pointing out that his manifesto and his father's 
declaration were a sufficient guarantee for the protection of 
the city. 3 By this time the magistrates had been informed, 
though it afterwards appeared prematurely, that General 
Cope's transports were arrived off Dunbar (twenty-seven 
miles east from the city), and felt disposed to hold out, in 
the hope of speedy relief from a government army. A 
second deputation of two persons (one of whom was father 
of the late Mr Coutts, banker) was therefore sent to Slate- 
ford about two o'clock in the morning, with a petition for 
a little longer time. 

According to one account, the Prince simply refused to 
admit them to his presence ; but Mr Home says that they 
prevailed on Lord George Murray to second their applica- 
tion ; and from another source 4 we have the actual words 

1 Williamson did go over the walls through the night, and was the first 
man to reach London with the intelligence of the surrender of Edinburgh. 

2 MS. Note to a copy of Lord Hailes's pamphlet against the extension of the 
city of Edinburgh, 1753. 

3 The letter was as follows : — 

1 His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, thinks his manifesto, and the king 
his father's declaration, already published, are a sufficient capitulation for all 
his Majesty's subjects to accept of with joy. His present demands are to be 
received into the city as the son and representative of the king his father, 
and obeyed as such when he is there. 

His Royal Highness supposes that since the receipt of his letter to the Pro- 
vost and Magistrates, no arms or ammunition have been suffered to be carried 
off or concealed, and will expect a particular account of all things of that 
nature. 

Lastly, he expects a positive answer to this before two o'clock in the 
morning, otherwise he will find himself obliged to take measures conform. 
By his Royal Highness's command, 

John Murray. 
At Gray's Mill, 16th Sept. 1745.' 

4 Lyon in Mourning, MS. 

VOL. V. F 



82 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

of a reply sent to them : — ' His Royal Highness has 
already given all the assurances he can, that he intends 
to exact nothing* of the city in general, nor of any in 
particular, but what his character of regent entitles him 
to. This he repeats, and renews his summons to the 
magistrates to receive him as such.' Dated at three in 
the morning. The deputies were then ordered ' to get 
them gone.' 1 

Charles, during this anxious night, slept only two hours, 
.and that without taking off his clothes. 2 Finding that the 
inhabitants of Edinburgh were paltering with him, and 
afraid that the city would soon be relieved, he gave orders, 
at an early hour in the morning-, for an attempt to take the 
city by surprise. The gentlemen whom he selected for this 
purpose were Locheil, Keppoch, Ardshiel, and Sullivan. 
They were commanded to take the best-armed of their re- 
spective parties, to the amount of about 900, together with 
a barrel of powder, to blow up one of the gates if necessary. 
Mr Murray of Broughton, who was well acquainted with 
the localities, acted as guide. This band mustered by moon- 
light upon the Borough Moor, where they could hear the 
watches calling the rounds within the castle. Strict silence 
and abstinence from intoxicating liquors were enjoined 
the men — the latter precaution being probably less with a 
regard to the success of the enterprise than the safety of life 
and property, after the troops should have obtained pos- 
session of the town. Several plans for breaking into the 
city were agitated ; but at length it was determined to 
attempt getting access by stratagem. A select party of 
twenty-four was planted close to the Netherbow Port ; an- 
other party of sixty took station in St Mary's Wynd, close 
by ; while the remainder hung a little way off, but ready 
to advance at a moment's notice. Locheil then sent forward 
one of his men, disguised in a riding-coat and hunting-cap, 
so as to appear as the servant of an officer of dragoons, in 
which character he was to knock at the wicket, and request 
admission, under pretence of being sent by his master to 
bring something which had been forgot in the city. The 
man did as he was bid; but without success, the guard 
ordering him to retire, under pain of being shot at. Tlfe 
chiefs were now at a loss how to proceed, for morn was 
breaking, and Locheil was anxious to avoid using violence. 
Mr Murray of Broughton recommended that they should 
retire to St Leonard's Crags, and wait for further orders ; 

] Provost Stewart's Trial. 2 Caledonian Mercury. 



CAPTURE OF EDINBURGPI. 83 

and they were about to follow this advice, when an accident 
enabled them to accomplish their object. The hackney- 
coach which took out the last party of deputies to Slate- 
ford, and afterwards brought them back to the city, was now 
returning- to its master's quarters in the Canongate. The 
port was opened, contrary to orders, to allow it egress ; and 
no sooner had that been done, than the Highlanders, who 
had not yet retired, rushed in and took possession of the 
gate. 1 The guard was so slender, that this feat was much 
more easily performed than they expected ; but not know- 
ing what resistance they might meet, they rushed into the 
High Street, sword in hand, with one of those outcries 
with which they were accustomed to make an onset in the 
field of battle. 2 The neighbouring people, roused from their 
beds, looked over their windows, and beheld in the dusk of 
the morning their street filled with a thickening troop of 
those enemies whom they had been so anxious to exclude, 
while the pipes screamed out a stormy pibroch, such as 
might have suited a day of fight. 3 A first object of the 
intruding party was to seize the guard-house in the High 
Street, and disarm the men posted there. They then went 
to the different ports of the city, and also to all the posts 
upon the walls, and relieved the guards, as quietly, says 
Mr Home, as one guard relieves another in the routine of 
duty on ordinary occasions. 4 They fixed a strong guard 
at the head of the West Bow, to cut off all communication 
between the city and the castle, using the Weigh-House 
as their court of guard ; and the remainder of the body drew 
themselves up in two lines upon the street, to await the ar- 
rival of the army. When the inhabitants began to stir at 
their usual hour of rising-, they found the government of 
the city transferred from the magistrates in the name of 

1 The first man who entered the city was Captain Evan Macgregor, a 
younger son of Macgregor of Glencairnaig, and grandfather to Sir Evan Mur- 
ray Macgregor, Bart., chief of this ancient clan. In consideration of his 
gallantry, he was that night raised to a majority hy the Prince at Holyrood 
House. — MS. account of the campaign by J>uncan Macpharig. 

2 Lockhart Papers, ii. 488. 

3 The tune was called ' We'll awa to Sherramuir to haud the Whigs in order,' 
according to the report of an aged female, whose mother, servant at the 
time to Commissioner Cochrane (father of the late Earl of Dundonald), saw 
from her master's windows in the Netherbow the scene above-described. 

4 Mr Home perhaps adopted this idea from a saying to the same effect, 
which tradition puts into the mouth of a Highlander. A citizen of Edin- 
burgh, taking a stroll round the walls on the morning of this momentous 
day, observed a mountaineer sitting astride upon a cannon, with an air of 
great vigilance and solemnity, as if deeply impressed with a sense of his duty 
as a sentinel. The citizen accosted him with a remark, that surely these 
were not the same troops which mounted guard yesterday. * Och, no,' said 
the Highlander, ' she pe relieved.' 



84 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

King George, to the Highlanders in the name of King 
James. 1 

1 At the period of these memorahle transactions, there were two newspapers 
regularly published in Edinburgh— the Evening Courant, and the Caledonian 
Mercury. The former continued throughout all the subsequent campaign to 
express such violent hostility to the insurgents, that the editor was burnt in 
effigy at Rome on the 10th of June 1746, amongst the other festivities with 
which the birthday of the old chevalier was there celebrated. The Mercury, 
on the contrary, was so enthusiastic a Jacobite, that it was afterwards very 
much discountenanced and even persecuted by government. There is some- 
thing quite amusing in the conduct of the Courant on the occasion of Charles's 
entry into Edinburgh. So long as the Highlanders were at a distance, the edi- 
tor talks of them with the most dignified contempt. Even when they had 
pushed their way to Perth, he describes them as ' a pitiful ignorant crew, 
good for nothing, and incapable of giving any reason for their proceedings, 
but talking only of snishing, King Jamesh, ta rashant (the regent), plunter, 
and new progues.' At every successive advance, however, which they made 
towards Edinburgh, and at every additional symptom of imbecility displayed 
by the protectors of the city, this tone is perceptibly decreased, till at last, 
in the number for Tuesday, September 17, it is altogether extinguished, and 
we only find a notice to the following effect : — ' By order of Mr Murray of 
Broughton, Secretary. Since our last, the Prince, with his Highland army, 
has taken possession of this place ; but Ave must refer you for particulars to our 
next.' Our next, however, did not come out for a week, instead of appearing, 
as it ought to have done, at the distance of two days ; and during the whole 
stay of the Prince in Edinburgh, the editor seems fain to say as little on 
either side as possible. The Mercury, which, as already mentioned, was then 
under the charge of Ruddiman, the distinguished grammarian, both talks 
with more respect of the Highland army when at a distance, and afterwards 
becomes more readily its organ of intelligence, than the Courant. In the first 
publication after the capture of Edinburgh, " affairs ' are stated to have 
' taken a surprising turn in this city since yesterday, Highlanders and bag- 
pipes being now as common in our streets as formerly were dragoons and 
drums.' Then follows an account of the taking of the city, concluding with 
a statement that ' the Highlanders behave most civilly to the inhabitants, 
paying cheerfully for everything they get,' &c. Both papers are printed 
without the affix of a printer's or publisher's name— a circumstance which at 
once indicated their terror of government, and tbe compulsion under which 
the Highland army had laid them. They are also unstamped ; because the 
Stamp-office, as well as the banks and other public offices, had been removed 
into the castle before the army approached. 

It remains to be stated, that Provost Archibald Stewart was afterwards 
apprehended, and, being confined for fourteen months, and only liberated on 
finding bail to the enormous amount of £15,000, was tried by the High Court 
of Justiciary, upon an obsolete statute of the Scottish James II., ' for neglect 
of duty, and misbehaviour in the execution of his office.' The trial, which 
took place in March 1747, lasted for two or three days, and was considered the 
most solemn ever witnessed in this country. He was acquitted by a unani- 
mous jury. My impression is, that Mr Stewart acted throughout exactly as 
might have been expected of a Jacobite who wished to keep a fair face to- 
wards the government. On the other hand, after the government troops had 
committed the blunder of leaving the Lowlands exposed, great daring for the 
repulse of the Highlanders was not to be reasonably expected in Edinburgh ; 
and the citizens at large most unquestionably betrayed feelings which gave 
only too good a colour to the actual proceedings of their provost. 



prince Charles's entry into Edinburgh. 85 



CHAPTER IX. 

prince Charles's entry into Edinburgh. 

To match this monarch, with strong Arcite came 
Emetrius, king of Inde, a mighty name, 
On a bay courser goodly to behold — 
* * * * 

His amber-coloured locks in ringlets run 
With graceful negligence, and shone against the sun ; 
His nose was aquiline, his eyes were blue, 
Ruddy his lips, and fresh and fair his hue : 
Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen, 
Whose dusk set off the whiteness of his skin : 
His awful presence did the crowd surprise, 
Nor durst the rash spectator meet his eyes — 
Eyes that confessed him born for kingly sway, 
So fierce, they flashed intolerable day. 

Palamon and Arcite. 

Intelligence of the capture of Edinburgh having* been 
conveyed to the Prince, he prepared, at an early hour, to 
leave his lodging's in Slateford, and lead forward the re- 
mainder of his army. This march, though short, was not 
altogether free of danger ; for he could see from his present 
position the flag of defiance flaunting on the battlements of 
the castle, and apparently daring* him to venture within the 
scope of its guns. The eminent position of that fortress 
was such as to command nearly the whole country for miles 
around, and it was a matter of difficulty to discover a path 
which should conduct him to the cit}^, without being ex- 
posed to its fire. Some of his train, however, by their ac- 
quaintance with the localities, enabled him to obviate this 
petty danger. 

By the direction of his guides, Charles made a circuit to 
the south of Edinburgh, so as not only to maintain a safe 
distance from the castle, but to keep some swelling* grounds 
between, which screened him from its view. Debouching 
upon the open or turnpike road near Morningside, and 
turning towards the city, he reached a sequestered and al- 
most obsolete cross-road, which turns off to the east by the 
house of Grang'e, and completely precludes the view of the 
city or castle. Charles conducted his army along this road, 
and soon entered the King's Park near Priestfield, by a 
breach which had been made in the wall. 1 

It must have been with elated feelings that Charles tra- 

1 Lockhart Papers, ii. 446. 



86 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

versed this venerable domain, whose recesses had so often 
sounded to the bugle-horn of his royal ancestors, Leaving 1 
his troops about noon in the Hunter's Bog, a deep and 
sheltered valley betwixt Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags, 
he rode forward, with the Duke of Perth on one hand, and 
Lord Elcho on the other, 1 some other gentlemen coming 
up behind. When he reached the eminence under St An- 
thony's Well, where he for the first time came within si^ht 
of the palace, he alighted from his horse, 2 and paused a few 
moments to survey the scene. 

The park and gardens below, intervening betwixt the 
Prince and the palace, were now filled with the inhabitants 
of Edinburgh, who, on learning that he approached the city 
in this quarter, had flocked in great numbers to see him. 
The crowd consisted of all ranks and persuasions of people, 
excepting only those who had taken a leading part in op- 
posing his entrance into the city. The Jacobites of course 
abounded; and many of these now approached Charles, 
where he was standing beside his horse, and knelt to kiss 
his hand. He received their homage and congratulations 
with smiles, and bowed gracefully to the huzza which im- 
mediately after rose from the crowded plain below. 3 

Descending to the Duke's Walk, a footpath through the 
park, so called from having been the favourite promenade 
of his grandfather, he stood for a few minutes to show him- 
self to the people. As it was here that he might be said to 
have first presented himself to the people of Scotland, it 
may be necessary to describe his appearance. 

The figure and presence of Charles are said by one of his 
historians, who saw him on this occasion, 4 to have been not 
ill-suited to his lofty pretensions, He was in the prime of 
youth, tall and handsome, of a fair complexion ; he wore a 
light-coloured peruke, the ringlets of which descended his 
back in graceful masses, and over the front of which his 
own pale hair was neatly combed. His complexion was 
ruddy, and, from its extreme delicacy, slightly marked with 
freckles. His visage was a perfect oval, and his brow had 

1 This young nobleman, son of the Earl of Wemyss, had joined him the 
night before. 

2 Hist. Reb., with an account of the genius and temper of the clans. 

3 « He came to the royal palace, at the abbey of Holyrood House,, amidst a 
vast crowd of spectators, who, from town and country, flocked together to 
see this uncommon sight, expressing their joy and surprise together by long 
and loud huzzas. Indeed the whole scene, as I have been told by many, was 
rather like a dream, so quick and amazing seemed the change, though no 
doubt wise people saw well enough we had much to do still.'— Journalist in 
Lockhart Papers, ii. 489. 

4 Mr Home. 



prince Charles's entry into Edinburgh. 87 

all the intellectual but melancholy loftiness so remarkable 
in the portraits of his ancestors. His neck, which was long, 
but not ungracefully so, had, according to the fashion of 
the time, no other covering* or incumbrance than a slender 
stock buckled behind. His eyes were large and rolling, 
and of a light blue. The fair, but not ill-marked eyebrows 
which surmounted these features, were beautifully arched. 
His nose was round and high, and his mouth small in pro- 
portion to the rest of his features. He was above five feet 
ten in stature, and his body was of that straight and round 
description which is said to indicate not only perfect sym- 
metry, but also the valuable requisites of agility and health. 
In the language of one of his adherents, 1 he was as l straight 
as a lance, and as round as an egg. 7 By all ladies who 
ever saw him, his person was excessively admired ; and the 
powers of fascination which he could exercise over the male 
sex have been sufficiently attested. On the present occasion 
he wore a blue velvet bonnet, bound with gold lace, and 
adorned at top with a white satin cockade, the well-known 
badge of his party. He had a short tartan coat, on the 
breast of which hung the star of the order of St Andrew. 
A blue sash, wrought with gold, came gracefully over his 
shoulder. He wore small-clothes of red velvet, a pair of 
military boots, and a silver-hilted broadsword. 2 

After he had stood for a few minutes in the midst of the 
people, he mounted a fine bay gelding, which had been pre- 
sented to him by the Duke of Perth, and slowly rode to- 
wards the palace. Being an excellent horseman, a murmur 
of admiration ran at this moment through the crowd, which 
soon amounted to, and terminated in, a long and loud huzza. 
Around him, as he rode, there was a small guard of ancient 
Highlanders, 3 whose outlandish and sunburnt faces, as 
they were occasionally turned up with reverence towards 
the Prince, and occasionally cast with an air of stupid 
wonder over the crowd, formed not the least striking fea- 
ture in this singular scene. 

The Jacobites, delighted beyond measure by the gallant 
aspect of their idol, were now indulging themselves in the 
most extravagant terms of admiration. With their usual 
propensity to revert to the more brilliant periods of the 

1 The Wanderer, or Surprising Escape, &c. Glasgow, 1752 ; p. 17.. It is 
added by that writer that he ' would tight, run, or leap with any man in 
the Highlands.' 

2 Hist. Reb., with an account of the genius and temper of the clans. 

3 Most of them stooping with age, and imperfectly armed. See Hist, of the 
Rise, Progress, and Extinction of the Reb. in Scot. 8vo. London, sold by 
R. Thomson, &c. p. 30. (A violent party production.) 



88 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Scottish monarchy, they fondly compared Charles to King 
Robert Bruce, whom they said he resembled in his figure, 1 
as they fondly anticipated he would also do in his fortunes. 
The Whigs, however, though compelled to be cautious in 
the expression of their sentiments, talked of him in a diffe- 
rent style. They acknowledged he was a goodly person, 
but observed that, even in that triumphant hour, when about 
to enter the palace of his fathers, the air of his countenance 
was languid and melancholy ; that he looked like a gentle- 
man and man of fashion, but not like a hero or a con- 
queror. 2 

Charles approached Holyrood House by the same path 
over which George IV., seventy-seven years after, was 
drawn thither in his daily progresses from Dalkeith. As 
he was parading along, the Duke of Perth stopped him a 
little, while he described the limits and peculiar local cha- 
racteristics of the King's Park. It was observed on this 
occasion by an eye-witness, that during the whole five 
minutes the duke was expatiating, Charles kept his eye 
bent sideways upon Lord Elcho (who stood aside at a little 
distance), and seemed lost in a mental speculation about 
that new adherent. As the procession — for such it might 
be termed — moved along the Duke's Walk, the crowd 
greeted the principal personage with two distinct huzzas, 
which he acknowledged with bows and smiles. The general 
feeling of the crowd seemed to be a very joyful one, arising 
in some cases from the influence of political prepossessions, 
in many others from gratified curiosity, and perhaps in still 
more from the satisfaction w T ith which they had observed 
the fate of the city so easily decided that morning. Many 
had previously conceived Charles to be only the leader of a 
band of predatory barbarians, at open warfare with pro- 
perty, and prepared to commit any outrage for the accom- 
plishment of his purposes. They now regarded him in the 
interesting light of an injured prince, seeking, at the risk 
of life, one single noble object, which did not very obviously 
concern their personal interests. All, more or less, resigned 
themselves to the charm with which the presence of royalty 
is so apt to be attended. Youthful and handsome ; gallant 
and daring ; the leader of a brave and hardy band ; the com- 
mander and object of a most extraordinary enterprise; un- 
fortunate in his birth and prospects, but making apparently 
one manly effort to retrieve the sorrows of his fate ; the de- 
scendant of those time-honoured persons by whose sides the 

1 Home's Works, iii. 71. 2 Ibid, iii. 71. 



prince Charles's entry into Edinburgh. 89 

ancestors of those who saw him had fought at Bannock- 
burn and Flodden ; the representative of a family pecu- 
liarly Scottish, but which seemed to have been deprived of 
its birthright by the machinations of the hated English — 
Charles was a being calculated to excite the most fervent 
emotions amongst the people who surrounded him. The 
modern sovereign, as he went over the same ground in his 
splendid chariot, was beheld with respect, as the chief 
magistrate of the nation ; but the boot of Charles was 
dimmed, as he passed along, with kisses and tears. 

A remarkable instance of the effect of these feelings 
occurred as Charles was entering the palace. When he 
had proceeded along the piazza within the quadrangle, and 
was just about to enter the porch of what are called the 
Hamilton apartments, the door of which stood open to 
receive him, a gentleman of mature age stepped out of the 
crowd, drew his sword, and, raising it aloft, marshalled the 
way before him up stairs. James Hepburn, of Keith, in 
East Lothian, who adopted this conspicuous mode of en- 
listing himself, did not act altogether under the influence of 
a devoted attachment to the Stuart family, but was sti- 
mulated by a sense of the injustice of the Union, which he 
said had ruined his country, and reduced a Scottish gentle- 
man from being* a person of some estimation to being the 
same as nobody. Since the insurrection of 1715, in which 
he was engaged, he had for thirty years kept himself in 
constant readiness to strike another blow for what he con- 
sidered the independence of his country. Learned and 
intelligent, advanced in life, and honoured by all parties of 
his countrymen, this man is said, by Mr Home, who knew 
him, to have been a perfect model of ancient simplicity, 
manliness, and honour. That he was inspired with as pure 
and noble a sense of patriotism as any Whig* that ever 
breathed, it is impossible to doubt. The Jacobites beheld 
with pride a person so accomplished set the first example 
in Edinburgh of joining* the Prince ; auguring that his 
1 silver hairs ? would c purchase them a good opinion. 7 The 
Whigs, on the other hand, by whom he was equally ad- 
mired, looked with pity upon a brave and worthy gentle- 
man thus offering* himself up a sacrifice to the visionary 
idea of national independence. 1 

The Prince being* thus established in his paternal palace, 
it was the next business of his adherents to proclaim his 
father at the Cross. The party which entered the city in 

1 Home's Works, iii. 72. 



90 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the morning- had taken care to secure the heralds and pur- 
suivants ; whose business it was to perform such ceremonies. 
About one o'clock, therefore, an armed body was drawn up 
around the Cross ; and that venerable pile, which, notwith- 
standing" its association with so many romantic events, was 
soon after removed by the magistrates, had the honour of 
being* covered with carpet for the occasion. 1 The officers 
were clothed in their fantastic, but rich old dresses, in order 
to give all the usual eclat to this disloyal ceremony. David 
Eeatt, a Jacobite teacher of Edinburgh, 2 then proclaimed 
King James, and read the commission of regency, with the 
declaration dated at Rome in 1743, and a manifesto in the 
name of Charles Prince Regent, dated at Paris May 16, 
1745. An immense multitude witnessed the solemnity, 
which they greeted with hearty but partial huzzas. The 
ladies, who viewed the scene from their lofty lattices in the 
High Street, strained their voices in acclamation, and waved 
white handkerchiefs in honour of the day. 3 The Highland 
guard looked round the crowd with faces expressing wild 
joy and triumph, and, with the license and extravagance 
appropriate to the occasion, fired off their pieces in the air. 
The bagpipe was not wanting to greet the name of James 
with a loyal pibroch ; and during the ceremony, Mrs 
Murray of Broughton, whose enthusiasm was only sur- 
passed by her beauty, sat on horseback beside the Cross, 
with a drawn sword in her hand, and her person profusely 
decorated with white ribbons, which signified devotion to 
the house of Stuart. 4 



CHAPTER X. 
cope's preparations. 

Cope sent a letter from Dunbar, 
Saying, 'Charlie, meet me if ye daur, 
And I'll learn you the art o' war, 
Right early in the morning.' 

Jacobite Song. 

Whilst the Highlanders were proclaiming King James 
at the Cross of Edinburgh, Sir John Cope was landing his 
troops at Dunbar. The evasive movement of this general 

1 Caledonian Mercury. 2 Boyse's History of the Rehellion. 

s Mr Home. 4 Boyse, 77. 



cope's preparations, 91 

had been most unfortunate, as it completely deprived the 
Lowlands of such protection as his troops were able to 
afford. He showed, however, all possible anxiety to repair 
the consequences of his error, marching' his army without 
delay from Inverness to Aberdeen, where it was embarked 
with the design of landing* in some Lowland port, and in 
the hope of still being* in time to protect the principal parts 
of the kingdom. 

Sir John's infantry was reinforced at Dunbar by the 
craven dragoons, who had fled thither as the safest place 
within their reach. Of their flight an amusing, though 
perhaps highly -coloured, account has been given in a 
pamphlet already quoted. 1 'Before the rebels/ says the 
writer, i came within sight of the king's forces [then posted 
at Colt bridge], before tbey came within three miles' dis- 
tance of them, orders were issued to the dragoons to wheel, 
which they immediately did with the greatest order and 
regularity imaginable. As it is known that nothing is more 
beautiful than the evolutions and movements of cavalry, the 
spectators stood in expectation of w^hat fine manoeuvre they 
might terminate in, when new orders were immediately 
issued to retreat; they instantly obeyed, and began to 
march in the usual pace of cavalry. Orders were repeated 
every furlong* to quicken their pace ; and, both precept and 
example concurring*, they quickened it so well, that before 
they reached Edinburgh, they quickened it to a very smart 
gallop. They passed in inexpressible hurry and confusion 
through the narrow lanes at Barefoot's Parks, in the sight 
of all the north part of Edinburgh, to the infinite joy of the 
disaffected, and equal grief and consternation of all the other 
inhabitants. They rushed like a torrent down to Leith, 
where they endeavoured to draw breath ; but some unlucky 
boy (I suppose a Jacobite in his heart) calling to them that 
the Highlanders were approaching, they immediately took 
to their heels again, and gallopped to Prestonpans, about 
five miles farther. There, in a literal sense, timor addidit 
alas — there fear added wings, I mean to the rebels ; for, 
otherwise, they could not possibly have imagined these 
formidable enemies to be within several miles of them. But 
at Prestonpans the same alarm was repeated. The Philis- 
tines be upon thee, Sampson ! They gallopped to North 
Berwick ; and being now about twenty miles to the other 
side of Edinburgh, they thought they might safely dis- 

1 * A True Account of the Behaviour and Conduct of Archibald Stewart, 
Esq., late Lord Provost of Edinburgh, in a Letter to a Friend. Lon- 
don : 1748.* 



92 HISTORY OF THE REEELLION OF 1745-6. 

mount from their horses, and look out for victuals. Accord- 
ingly, like the ancient Grecian heroes, each began to kill 
and dress his provisions — egit amor dapis atque pugnce — 
they were actuated by the desire of supper and of battle. 
The sheep and turkeys of North Berwick paid for this 
warlike disposition. But behold the uncertainty of human 
happiness ! When the mutton was j ust ready to be put 
upon the table, they heard, or thought they heard, the 
same cry of Highlanders. Their fear proved stronger than 
their hunger ; they again got on horseback ; but were in- 
formed of the falseness of the alarm time enough to prevent 
the spoiling of their meal. By such rudiments as these, the 
dragoons were so thoroughly initiated in the art of running, 
that at the battle of Preston they could practise it of them- 
selves, though even there the same good example was not 
wanting. I have seen an Italian opera called Cesare in 
JEgitto — Caesar in Egypt — where, in the first scene, Csesar 
is introduced in a great hurry, giving orders to his soldiers, 
Fugge, fugge ; alio scampo — Fly, fly ; to your heels ! This 
is a proof that the commander at Coltbridge is not the first 
hero that gave such orders to his troops.' 

The ( Canter of Coltbridge' is related by Mr Home with 
circumstances somewhat different, but not less ridiculous. 
After passing through Leith and Musselburgh, they en- 
camped for the evening in a field near Colonel Gardiner's 
house at Preston. Between ten and eleven at night, one 
of their number, going in search of forage, fell into a dis- 
used coal-pit, which was full of water, and making an 
outcry for assistance, impressed his companions with a 
belief that their dreaded enemy was upon them. Not 
stopping to ascertain the real cause of the noise, or to 
relieve their unfortunate fellow-soldier, the whole mounted 
their horses, and with all imaginable speed gallopped off to 
Dunbar. Colonel Gardiner, awaking in the morning, found 
a silent and deserted camp, and was obliged, with a heavy 
heart, to follow in the direction which he learned they had 
taken. There was little danger that he should have missed 
their track, for, as he passed along, he found the road 
strewed with swords, pistols, and firelocks, which they had 
thrown away in their panic. He caused these to be gathered, 
and conveyed in covered carts to Dunbar, where he arrived 
in time to greet General Cope as he landed. 

The disembarkation of the troops, artillery, and stores, was 
not completed till the 18th of September ; when Mr Home, 
author of the history already quoted, presented himself at 
the camp, and gave the general all the information he could 



cope's preparations. 93 

desire regarding the numbers and condition of the Highland 
army. The author of ' Douglas 7 had gone to the different 
posts about the city, and counted the men there stationed ; 
he had then ascended the hill which overlooked the bivouac 
of the main body, and reckoned them as they sat at food in 
lines upon the ground. The whole number, in his estima- 
tion, did not exceed two thousand ; but he had been told 
that several bodies from the north were on their march to 
join them. The general asked his informant what sort of 
appearance they made, and, in particular, how they were 
armed ; to which the young poet replied, that most of them 
seemed to be strong, active, hardy men, though many were 
of an ordinary size, and, if clothed like Lowlanders, would 
appear inferior to the king's troops. The Highland garb, 
he said, favoured them, as it showed their naked limbs, 
which were strong and muscular ; while their stern coun- 
tenances, and bushy uncombed hair, gave them a fierce, 
barbarous, and imposing aspect. As to their arms, he con- 
tinued, they had no artillery of any sort but one small 
unmounted cannon, which he had seen lying upon a cart, 
drawn by a little Highland pony. Fourteen or fifteen hun- 
dred of them were armed with firelocks and broadswords, 
and many others had only either the one or the other of 
these weapons. Their firelocks were of all sorts and sizes — 
muskets, fusees, and fowlingpieces ; but they must soon 
provide themselves more generally with that weapon, as the 
arsenal of the trained bands had fallen into their hands. In 
the meantime, he had seen one or two companies, amounting 
altogether perhaps to a hundred men, each of whom had no 
other weapon than the blade of a scythe fastened end-long 
upon a pole. 1 General Cope dismissed Mr Home, with many 
compliments for bringing him so accurate an account of the 
enemy. 

The king's army was joined at Dunbar by several judges 
and other civil officers, who, having fled from Edinburgh on 
the evening before the Prince had entered it, now resolved 
to remain with the royal troops, not as fighting men, but 
as anxious and interested spectators of the approaching 
action. There also came a few noblemen and gentlemen of 
the country, attended by their tenants in arms. Among 
these was the Earl of Home, who, being then an officer in 
the Guards, thought it his duty to offer his services when 
the king's troops were in the field. The retinue which this 
nobleman brought along with him was such as to surprise 

1 Home's Works, iii. 76. 



94 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

many persons. At the time when the Lowlands of Scotland 
were equally warlike, and equally under the influence of the 
feudal system with the Highlands, his lordship's ancestors 
could have raised as many men upon their dominions in 
Berwickshire as would have themselves repelled the che- 
valier's little army. In 1633, the Earl of Home had greeted 
Charles I., as he crossed the Border to visit Scotland, at the 
head of 600 well-mounted gentlemen, his relations and re- 
tainers. The whole force that the present earl could bring, 
besides himself, to assist his sovereign in opposing a public 
enemy, consisted of two body servants ! 1 

It was not till the day succeeding the disembarkation, 
Thursday the 19th of September, that the royal army left 
Dunbar to meet the insurgents. It is said to have made a 
great show upon its march ; the infantry, cavalry, cannon, 
and baggage occupying several miles of road. The country 
people, long unaccustomed to war and arms, flocked from 
all quarters to see an army going to fight a battle in Lothian, 
and with infinite concern and anxiety beheld this uncom- 
mon spectacle. 2 

The army halted for the night in a field to the west of 
Haddington, sixteen miles east of Edinburgh. In the even- 
ing, it was proposed to employ some young people who 
followed the camp to ride betwixt Haddington and Edin- 
burgh during the dark hours, lest the Highlanders, whose 
movements were rapid, should march in the night-time and 
surprise the army. Accordingly sixteen young men, most 
of whom had been volunteers at Edinburgh, and among 
whom the author of ' Douglas 7 was one, offered their 
services. About nine at night eight of them set out, in 
four parties, by four different roads, for Duddingstone, 
where they understood the Highlanders to be encamped. 
They returned safe at midnight, reporting that all was 
quiet ; and the other eight then set out in the same 
manner. 3 

1 Home's Works, iii. 77- 2 Ihid. iii. 78. 

3 It was the duty of two of this little corps to pursue the coast road towards 
Musselburgh. Their names were Francis Garden and Robert Cunningham 
— the one afterwards better known by his judicial title of Lord Gardenstone, 
and the other by his official designation of General. On approaching Mussel- 
burgh, says Sir Walter Scott in a lively contribution to the Quarterly Re- 
view, ' they avoided the bridge, to escape observation, and crossed the Esk, it 
being then low water, at a place nigh its junction with the sea. Unluckily, 
there was at the opposite side a snug thatched tavern kept by a cleanly old 

woman called Luckie F , who was eminent for the excellence of her 

oysters and sherry. The patrol were both ton vivants ; one of them, whom 
we remember in the situation of a senator, was unusually so, and a gay, witty, 
agreeable companion besides. Luckie's sign, and the heap of oyster shells 



cope's preparations. 95 

On the morning of the succeeding' day, Friday the 20th 
of September, Cope continued his march towards Edin- 
burgh by the ordinary post-road from Haddington, After 
marching a very few miles, it occurred to him that the 
defiles and enclosures near the road would, in case of an 
attack, prove unfavourable to the action of cavalry, and he 
resolved to adopt a less-frequented and more open path. On 
coming to Huntington, therefore, he turned off to the right, 
and took what is called the Low Road ; that is, the road 
which traverses the low country near the sea, passing by 
St Germains and Seton. At the same time he sent forward 
his adjutant-general, the Earl of Loudon, accompanied by 
the Earl of Home, to mark out a camp for the army near 
Musselburgh, intending to go no farther that day. The 
soldiers are described as having been in high spirits during 
the march ; the infantry feeling confident in the assistance 
of the cavalry, and the cavalry acquiring some portion of 
the same courage by a junction with the infantry. 

The first files of the troops were entering the plain be- 
twixt Seton and Preston, when Lord Loudon came back at 

deposited near her door, proved as great a temptation to this vigilant foriorn- 
hope as the wine-house to the abbess of Andouillet's muleteer. They had 
scarcely got settled at some right pandoi-es, with a bottle of sherry as an 
accompaniment, when, as some Jacobite devil would have it, an unlucky 
north-country lad, a writer's (that is, attorney's) apprentice, who had given 
his indentures the slip, and taken the white cockade, chanced to pass by on 
his errand to join Prince Charlie. He saw the two volunteers through the 
window, knew them, and guessed their business : he saw the tide would 
make it impossible for them to return along the sands, as they had come. He 
therefore placed himself in ambush upon the steep, narrow, impracticable 
bridge, which was then, and for many years afterwards, the only place of 
crossing the Esk : and how he contrived it I could never learn, but the 
courage and assurance of his province are proverbial, and the Norland whip- 
per-snapper surrounded and made prisoners of the two unfortunate volun- 
teers before they could draw a trigger.'* 

They were immediately conducted to the camp at Duddingstone, and put 
into the hands of John Roy Stuart, commander of the Prince's bodyguard, 
who at once pronounced them spies, and proposed to hang them accordingly. 
Thrown into consternation by this sentence, they luckily recollected that a 
youthful acquaintance, by name Colquhoun Grant, bore a commission in the 
very body which John Roy commanded ; and they intreated him to lead 
them before that person, who was able to attest their innocence. Colquhoun 
Grant, who lived many years afterwards as a respectable writer to the signet 
in Edinburgh, used to relate that he never was so much surprised in his life, 
and at the same time amused, as when his two young friends were brought 
up to him for his verdict. Stuart introduced them with the following words : 
— ' Here are two fellows who have been caught prowling near the camp. I 
am certain they are spies, at least this oldest one (Mr Garden); and I propose 
that, to make sure, we should hang them baith.' Mr Grant of course inter- 
fered in behalf of his friends, and afterwards getting them into his own cus- 
tody, took it upon him to permit their escape, f 

* Quarterly Review, vol. xxxvi. 177- 

f Information by the late Henry Mackenzie, author of the ■ Man of Feeling.* 



96 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

a round pace, with information that the Highlanders were 
in full march towards the royal army. The general, sur- 
prised, but not disconcerted by this intelligence, and think- 
ing 1 the plain which lay before him a very proper place to 
receive the enemy, called a halt there, and drew up his 
troops with a front to the west. His right was thus ex- 
tended to the sea, and his left towards the village of Tranent. 
Soon after he had taken up his ground, the chevalier's army 
came in sight. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE PRINCE'S MARCH TO PRESTON. 

When Charlie looked this letter upon, 
He drew his sword the scabbard from, 
Crying, ' Follow me, my merry, merry men, 

And we'll meet Johnnie Cope in the morning.' 

Jacobite Song. 

Three days of rest in Edinburgh, where they were sup- 
plied with plenty of food, and did not want opportunities 
of improving their appointments, had meanwhile increased 
in no inconsiderable degree the efficacy and confidence of 
the Highland army. Learning that Cope had landed at 
Dunbar, and was marching to give him battle, the Prince 
came on Thursday night to Duddingstone, where, calling' a 
council of war, he proposed to march next morning and 
meet the enemy half way. The council agreed that this 
was the only thing they could do ; and Charles then asked 
the Highland chiefs how they thought their men would 
behave in meeting a general who had already avoided them. 
The chiefs desired Macdonald of Keppoch to speak for them, 
as he had served in the French army, and was thought to 
know best what the Highlanders could do against regular 
troops. Keppoch's speech was brief, but emphatic. He said 
that the country having been long at peace, and few or none 
of the private men having ever seen a battle, it was difficult 
to foretell how they would behave ; but he would venture 
to assure his royal highness that the gentlemen wxmld be 
in the midst of the enemy, and that the clansmen, devoted 
to their chiefs, and loving the cause, would certainly not be 
far behind them. Charles, catching the spirit of the mo- 
ment, exclaimed he would be the first man to charge the 
foe ! But the chiefs discountenanced this imprudent pro- 



THE PRIXCE'S MARCH TO PRESTOX. 97 

posal, declaring that in his life lay the strength of their 
cause, and that, should he be slain, they would be undone 
beyond redemption, whether victorious or defeated. They 
even went so far as to declare that they would go home, 
and endeavour to make the best terms they could for them- 
selves, if he persisted in so rash a resolution. This re- 
monstrance with difficulty repressed the ardour of their 
young commander, whose great passion at this moment 
seems to have been to strike a decisive blow, and share per- 
sonally in its glory. 1 

On the morning of Friday the 20th of September, when 
the king's army was commencing its march from Hadding- 
ton, the Highlanders roused themselves from their bivouac 
near Duddingstone, and prepared to set forward. They 
had been reinforced since daybreak by a party of Grants 
from Glenmorriston, 2 as they had been the day before by 
some Maclauchlans and Athole men. The Prince, putting 
himself at the head of his army, thus increased by 250, 
presented his sword, and said aloud, * My friends, I have 
thrown away the scabbard!' 3 He was answered by a 
cheerful huzza; and the band then set forward in three 
files, Charles marching on horseback by their side, along 
with some of Ijjs principal officers. 

The army proceeded from Duddingstone Park, where 
they had what was called their camp, by the road which 
passes Easter Duddingstone, and enters the main or post- 
road near Magdalen Bridge. A lady, who in early youth 
had seen them pass the last-mentioned village, 4 was able, 
in 1827, to describe the memorable pageant. The High- 
landers strode on with their squalid clothes and various 
arms, their rough limbs and uncombed hair, looking around 
them with an air of fierce resolution. The Prince rode 
amidst his officers at a little distance from the flank of the 
column, preferring to amble over the dry stubble-fields 
beside the road. My informant remembered, as yesterday, 
his graceful carriage and comely looks, his long light hair 
straggling below his neck, and the flap of his tartan coat 
thrown back by the wind, so as to make the jewelled St 

1 Home's Works, iii. 81. 

2 Grant of Glenmorriston arrived with his little party in great haste, anxious 
not to be too late for the first battle. He had travelled all night, and was of 
course travel-soiled and unshaven. When he rushed into the Prince's pre- 
sence at Holyroodhouse, his appearance drew an ill-timed, but probably half- 
j ocular remark from Charles as to his beard. The chief turned away with 
kindling wrath, saying, * Sir, it is not beardless boys who are to do your busi- 
ness.'— Information from the late Mr W. Grant, W.S. 

3 Caledonian Mercury. 4 The late Mrs Handasyde of Fisherrow. 
VOL. V. G 



98 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OP 1745-6. 

Andrew dangle for a moment clear in the air by its silken 
ribbon. He was viewed with admiration by the simple vil- 
lagers ; and even those who were ignorant of his claims, or 
who rejected them, could not help wishing him good for- 
tune, and at least no calamity. 

Soon after falling into the post-road, the insurgents con- 
tinued their march till they entered the Market-gate of 
Fisherrow — an old narrow street leading to the bridge 
across the Esk. One there went up to a new house upon 
which the tilers were engaged, and took a long slip of 
wood, technically called a tile-lath ; from another house 
he abstracted an ordinary broom, which he tied upon the 
end of the pole. This he bore aloft over his head, emble- 
matising what seemed to be the general sentiment of the 
army, that they would sweep their enemies off the face of 
the earth. The shouts with which the symbol was hailed 
on the present occasion testified the high courage and 
resolution of the troops, and but too truly presaged the 
issue of the approaching conflict. Charles, in passing along 
the Market-gate, bowed gracefully to the ladies who sur- 
veyed him from their windows. 1 

The army now passed along the ancient bridge of Mussel- 
burgh— a structure supposed to be of Roman origin, and 
over which the Scottish army had passed, two centuries 
before, to the field of Pinkie. Proceeding directly onward, 
the column traversed, not the town of Musselburgh, but the 
old post-road which winds to the south, behind the gardens 
of Pinkie House. When passing these gardens, Lord 
George Murray, who led the van, received intelligence that 
Cope was at or near Preston, and was likely to seek the 
high grounds to the south, so as to obtain an advantage 
over the Highland army. Being convinced that the High- 
landers could do nothing unless they got above the enemy, 
he immediately struck off through the fields to the right, 
with which he was well acquainted, ordering the army to 
follow him. By half an hour of quick marching, he 
reached the height near Fawside, and then marched slow, 
that the rear might close up. He now became aware that 
Cope had remained content with his position at Preston, 
and therefore commenced a slanting march down -hill 
towards Tranent. On coming within half a mile of that 
village, the army halted. During the last two miles of 
their march, they had had the enemy within sight. 2 

1 Tradition in Fisherrow. 

2 Lord George Murray's Narrative, Jacobite Memoirs, 36. 



THE PRINCE'S MARCH TO PRESTON. 99 

At this early stage of the campaign, the mode of forming 
the Highland army was extremely simple, on account of 
the want of horse and artillery. The column in which it 
always moved was merely halted at the proper place, and 
then facing about, became at once a line. Such was the 
evolution by which, on the present occasion, Charles brought 
his men to their first tete-a-tete with the devoted host of 
his antagonist. 

When the royal troops first perceived the Highlanders 
they raised a spirited shout, to which the others readily re- 
plied. The two armies were about a mile distant from each 
other, with a gentle slope and a long stripe of marshy 
ground between. It was a little after noon, and the weather 
was favourable for immediate combat. Both armies had 
marched the equal distance of eight miles, and were alike 
fresh and ardent. It was Charles's wish, as it had been his 
expectation, to engage the enemy before nightfall ; and the 
ground appeared perfectly favourable for the purpose. The 
descent towards Cope's position, though gentle, was suffi- 
cient to increase the natural speed and impetuosity of the 
Highlanders, whose ancestors had been always successful 
in conflicts fought in that manner. But Cope had not the 
same eager desire of battle; and various considerations, 
arising from the nature of the ground, interposed to prevent 
an immediate attack on the part of the Highlanders. 

The English general had at first arranged his troops with 
their front to the west, expecting the enemy to come directly 
from Musselburgh ; but when he saw them appear on the 
southern heights, he altered his position accordingly, and 
now lay upon a plain swelling gently up from the coast, 
with Cockenzie and the sea behind him, the intricate little 
village of Preston, with its numerous parks and garden- 
walls, on his right, Seton House at a distance on his left, 
and a deep ditch or drain traversing* the morass before him. 
On all sides but the east he was inaccessible, except, perhaps, 
by a column which no enemy could ever have thought of 
directing* against him. 

By examining the country people, who, as usual, flocked 
about him in great numbers, the Prince soon learned that 
to attack General Cope across the morass was impracticable, 
except at a great risk. In order to ascertain the point still 
more satisfactorily, Lord George Murray despatched Colonel 
Ker of Graden, 1 an officer of experience, to survey and 

1 The Prince had granted a commission as colonel to Mr Ker, at Lin- 
lithgow, on the 13th September— a copy of which is in possession of the 
author. 



100 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

report upon the ground. Mounted upon a little white pony, 
Mr Ker descended alone from Tranent, and with great de- 
liberation approached the post of the enemy. When very 
near it, he rode slowly along the edge of the morass, care- 
fully inspecting" the ground on all sides, and scanning 1 the 
breadth and depth of the ditch. Some of the king's troops 
moved along the ditches, and shot at him ; but he was not 
in the least discomposed. Coming to a stone fence which 
he required to cross, he dismounted, pulled down a piece of 
the dike, and then led his horse through the breach. 
When he had completely satisfied himself, he returned to 
the army, and reported his observations to the lieutenant- 
general. The morass, he said, could not be passed without 
the troops being exposed to several unreturned fires, and 
was therefore not to be thought of. 1 When Charles learned 
this, he moved a considerable part of his army back to Dol- 
phingston, and affected to meditate an attack upon Cope's 
west or right flank. The English general observing this, 
resumed his first position, in order to meet the insurgents 
w T ith the front of his army. 

Charles, probably deterred from makings an attack in this 
quarter by the park-dikes, which so effectually screened 
the enemy's front, now once more shifted his ground, and 
returned to his first station near Tranent. The king's army 
faced round at the same time. The whole afternoon was 
occupied by these evolutions. When evening approached, 
General Cope found himself still in possession of the advan- 
tageous ground he had originally chosen ; but it was feared 
by some unconcerned spectators that he had been perhaps 
over-cautious in his evolutions ; that he had cooped himself 
up in a narrow place, while the Highlanders were at liberty 
to move about as they pleased ; and that he had disheartened 
his men by keeping them so carefully on the defensive, 
while the Highlanders were proportionably animated by 
feeling themselves in the predicament of an attacking 
party. 2 

Cope had not acted altogether on the defensive. Sullivan 
had posted fifty of Locheil's men at the parish church at 
the bottom of the village, 'for what reason,' says Lord 
George Murray, <I could not understand.' The enemy 
brought their cannon to bear on this post, and fired off a 
few shots, which they accompanied with huzzas, being 

1 Home's Works, iii. 84. — ' Without risking the loss of the whole army,' is 
the expression put into Mr Ker's mouth hy the author of an account of the 
young chevalier's operations, printed in the Lockhart Papers. 

2 Home's Works, iii. 85. 



THE PRINCE'S MARCH TO PRESTON. 101 

under the impression that the Highlanders were very liable 
to be frightened by cannon. They soon wounded one or 
two men, when Lord George Murray sent an order for the 
party to join the main body. Charles, however, posted 500 
men under Lord Nairn at Preston, to the west of Cope's 
position, to prevent him from stealing a march in that 
direction. 

Since the insurgents had first risen in Lochaber, the 
weather had been generally fine. The nights, however, 
though calm, were chill, as generally happens in the finest 
autumn weather under our northern climate. The night 
of Friday, the 20th of September 1745, set in with a cold 
mist, which, without doing any particular injury to the 
hardy children of the north, was annoying to their oppo- 
nents, less accustomed to bivouacking, and obliged to be 
more upon the alert, in apprehension of a night attack. 
General Cope lighted great fires all round his position, to 
warm and inspirit his men, 1 and threw off a few cohorns 
during the night, to let the enemy know he was on his 
guard. At an early period of the evening he had planted 
pickets, with great care, in every direction around him, 
especially towards the east ; he had also sent his military 
chest and baggage down to Cockenzie under a strong 
guard. 

The royal army was arranged along the front of the 
morass in a manner displaying sufficient military skill. 
The centre consisted of eight companies of Lascelles's 
regiment, and two of Guise's. On the right were five 
companies of Lees's ; on the left the whole of Sir John 
Murray's. Besides these, there were a number of recruits 
for different regiments at present abroad, and a few small 
parties of volunteers, comprising the gentlemen with their 
tenants already mentioned, and some persons who had been 
induced to join by religious considerations. The infantry 
was protected on the right flank by Gardiner's, on the left 
by Hamilton's dragoons, who stood each with two troops 
to the front, and one in the rear, for a reserve. Some High- 
land companies composed a second line in the rear. The 
cannon, six pieces in all, guarded by a company of Lees's 
regiment, commanded by Captain Cochrane, and under the 
orders of Lieutenant-colonel Whiteford, were placed on the 
right of the army, near the wagon-road or railway from 
Tranent to Cockenzie. 

The army of Cope altogether consisted of 2100 men ; but 

1 Lockhart Papers, ii. 489, 490. 



102 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

a number of these did not fight in the subsequent engage- 
ment, being engaged elsewhere as videttes and guards. The 
artillery corps was by far the most hopeless part of the 
army. At the time when General Cope marched to the 
north, there were no gunners or matrosses to be had in 
Scotland but one old man, who had belonged to the Scots 
train of artillery before the Union. This person, with three 
old invalid soldiers, the general carried with him to Inver- 
ness ; and the hopeful band was afterwards reinforced by a 
few sailors from the ship of war which escorted the troops 
to Dunbar. A more miserable troop could hardly have been 
intrusted with so important a charge. 

As soon as it became dark, the Highland army moved 
from the west to the east side of Tranent, where the morass 
seemed to be more practicable ; and a council of war being 
called, it was resolved to attack the enemy in that quarter 
at break of day. The Highlanders, wrapping themselves 
in their plaids, then laid themselves down to sleep upon the 
stubble-fields. Charles, whose pleasure it had all along been 
to share in the fatigues and privations of his men, rejecting 
the opportunity of an easier couch in the village, also made 
his lodging upon the ground. During the night not a light 
was to be seen, and not a word to be heard in his bivouac, 
in obedience to an order which had been issued, for the 
purpose of concealing their position from Sir John Cope. 1 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE BATTLE OF PRESTON. 

Brutus. Slaying is the word ; 

It is a deed in fashion. Julius Ccesar. 

A young gentleman named Robert Anderson (son of 
Anderson of Whitborough, in East Lothian), who joined the 
insurgents at Edinburgh, had been present at the council 
which determined the place and mode of attack, but did not 
take the liberty to speak or give his opinion. After the 
dismissal of the council, Anderson told his friend, Mr 
Hepburn of Keith, that he knew the ground well, 2 and 

1 Home's Works, iii. 92. 

2 Mr Anderson, while residing occasionally with his relatives, the Ander- 
sons of St Germains, had often shot snipes on this ground. Such, I have 
been informed by his family, was the accident by which he gained this 
valuable piece of knowledge. 



THE BATTLE OF PRESTON. 103 

thought there was a better way to come at the king's army 
than that which the council had resolved to follow. ' I 
could undertake/ he added, i to show them a place where 
they might easily pass the morass without being seen by 
the enemy, and form without being exposed to their fire.' 
Hepburn listened attentively to this information, and ex- 
pressed his opinion of it in such terms, that Anderson 
desired he would carry him to Lord George Murray. Mr 
Hepburn advised him to go alone to the lieutenant-general, 
with whom he was already perfectly well acquainted, and 
who would like best to receive any information of this kind 
without the presence of a third party. Anderson imme- 
diately sought Lord George, whom he found asleep in a 
field of cut pease, with the Prince and several of the chiefs 
lying near him. The young gentleman immediately awoke 
his lordship, and proceeded to inform him of his project. 
To Lord George it appeared so eligible, that he hesitated 
not a moment to use the same freedom with the Prince 
which Mr Anderson had used with him. Charles sat up 
on his bed of pease-straw, and listened to the scheme with 
great attention. He then caused Locheil and the other 
leaders to be called and taken into counsel. They all ap- 
proved of the plan, and a resolution was instantly passed 
to take advantage of Mr Anderson's offers of service. 1 

Lord Nairn's party being recalled from Preston, the 
Highland army began to move about three o'clock in the 
morning (Saturday, 21st September), when the sun was as 
yet three hours below the horizon. It was thought neces- 
sary, on this occasion, to reverse the order of march, by 
shifting the rear of the column to the van. Colonel Ker 
managed this evolution with his characteristic skill and 
prudence. Passing slowly from the head to the other end 
of the column, desiring the men, as he went along, to 
observe the strictest silence, he turned the rear forwards, 
making the men wheel round his own person till they were 
all on the march. 2 Mr Anderson led the way. Next to 
him was Macdonald of Glenaladale, major of the Clanranald 
regiment, with a chosen body of sixty men, appointed to 
secure Cope's baggage whenever they saw the armies en- 
gaged. 3 Close behind came the army, marching, as usual, 
in a column of three men abreast. They came down by a 
sort of valley, or hollow, that winds through the farm of 
Ring-an-head. Not a whisper was heard amongst them. 
At first their march was concealed by darkness, and, when 

t 

1 Home's Works, iii. 88. 2 Lockhart Papers, ii. 449. 3 Ibid. ii. 491. 



104 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

daylight began to appear, by the mist. When they were 
near the morass, some dragoons, who stood upon the other 
side as an advanced guard, called out l Who's there ? ' 
The Highlanders made no answer, but marched on. The 
dragoons, soon perceiving who they were, fired their pieces, 
and rode off to give the alarm. 1 

The ditch so often mentioned as traversing the morass 
became a mill-course at this easterly point, for the service 
of Seton-mill with water. The Highlanders had therefore 
not only the difficulty of wading through the bog knee- 
deep in mud, but also that of crossing a broad deep stream 
by a narrow wooden bridge. Charles himself jumped 
across the dam, but fell on the other side, and got his legs 
and hands beslimed. The column, as it gradually cleared 
this impediment, moved directly onwards to the sea, till it 
was thought by those at the head that all would be over 
the morass ; a line was then formed, in the usual manner, 
upon the firm and level ground. 

The arrangement of the Highland army for the battle 
about to take place was ruled by some fanciful considera- 
tions. The great clan Colla, or Macdonalds, formed the 
right wing, in consequence of a tradition that Robert Bruce 
had assigned it that station at the battle of Bannockburn, 
in gratitude for the treatment he had received from its 
chief when in hiding* in the Hebrides, and because it had 
assumed that station in every battle since, except that of 
Harlaw, on which occasion the post of honour was volun- 
tarily resigned in favour of the Macleods. 2 The Camerons 
and Appin Stuarts composed the left wing, perhaps for 
some similar reason ; while the Duke of Perth's regiment 
and the Macgregors stood in the centre. The Duke of 
Perth, as oldest lieutenant-general, commanded the right 
wing, Lord George Murray the left. 

Behind the first line a second was arranged, at the 
distance of fifty yards, consisting of the Athole men, the 
Robertsons, the Macdonalds of Glencoe, and the Maelauch- 
lans, under the command of Lord Nairn. Charles took his 
place between the two lines. The whole army was rather 
superior in numbers to that of General Cope, being pro- 
bably about 2400 ; but as the second line never came into 
action, the real number of combatants, as stated by the 
Prince's authority after the battle, was only 1456. 

Surprise being no part of the Prince's plan, no regret was 
expressed at the alarm which the videttes had carried to 

1 Home, iii. 89. 2 Lockhart Papers, ii. 510. 



THE BATTLE OF PRESTON. 105 

the king's army ; but it was thought necessary to form the 
lines as quickly as possible. When this was effected, 
Charles addressed his men in these words — ' Follow me, 
gentlemen, and by the blessing of God I will this day make 
you a free and happy people!' 1 The Duke of Perth then 
sent Mr Anderson to inform Lord George Murray that he 
was ready to march. Anderson met an aid-de-camp sent 
by Lord George to inform the duke that the left wing was 
moving. Some time of course elapsing before the right 
wing was aware of this motion, it was a little behind the 
left, and the charge was thus made in an oblique manner. 2 

It was just dawn, and the mist was fast retiring before 
the sun, when the Highlanders set out upon their attack. 
A long uninterrupted series of fields, from which the 
grain had recently been reaped, lay between them and 
General Cope's position. Morn was already on the waters 
of the Forth to their right, and the mist was rolling in 
large masses over the marsh and the crofts to their left; 
but it was not yet clear enough to admit of either army 
seeing the other. An impervious darkness lay between, 
which was soon, however, to disclose to both the exciting 
spectacle of an armed enemy. On the part of the High- 
landers there was perfect silence, except the rushing sound 
occasioned by their feet going through the stubble : on that 
of General Cope, only an occasional drum was to be heard, 
as it hoarsely pronounced some military signal. 

At setting out upon the charge, the Highlanders pulled 
off their bonnets, and looking upwards, uttered a short 
prayer. 3 The front rank men, most of whom were 
gentlemen, and all of whom had targets, stooped as much 
as they could in going* forward, keeping their shields in 
front of their heads, so as to protect almost every part of 
their bodies, except the limbs, from the fire which they 
expected. 4 The inferior and worse-armed men behind, 
endeavoured to supply the want of defensive weapons by 
going* close in rear of their companions. Every chief 
charged in the centre of his regiment, supported imme- 
diately on both sides by his nearest relations and principal 
officers; 5 any one of whom, as of the whole clan, would 
have willingly substituted his person to the blow aimed at 
that honoured individual. 

A little in advance of the second line, Charles himself 
went on, in the midst of a small guard. His situation was 

1 The Prince's authorised account of the battle, Caledonian Mercury. 

2 Home's Works, iii. 91. 3 Caledonian Mercury. 4 Ibid. 
5 Highland tradition. 



106 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

not so dangerous as it would have been if he had persisted 
in his wish of going- foremost into the enemy's lines, but 
jet such as a gallant man might have been glad to have. 
As his courage has been most absurdly challenged, it is the 
more necessary to be particular as to his conduct on this 
occasion. A Highland gentleman, who wrote a journal of 
the campaign, relates that, just before the moment of the 
onset at Preston, he saw the Prince leave his guard, and go 
forward to the front line to give his last orders to the Duke 
of Perth and Clanranald. Passing the reporter of the cir- 
cumstance on his return, and recognising him, he said, with 
a smile, i Gres-ort, gres-ort I ' — that is, i Make haste, make 
haste!' 1 

Not only was the front line, as already mentioned, 
oblique, but it was soon further weakened from another 
cause. After commencing the charge, it was found that the 
marsh retired southwards a little, and left some firm ground 
unoccupied by that extremity of the army, so that it would 
have been possible for Cope to turn their flank with a troop 
of dragoons. In order to obviate this disadvantage, the 
Camerons were desired by Lord George Murray to incline 
that way, and fill the open ground. When they had done 
so, there was an interval in the centre of the line, which 
was ordered to be filled up from the second line ; but it 
could not be done in time. 2 Some of the Prince's officers 
afterwards acknowledged that, when they first saw the 
regular lines of the royal army, and the level rays of the 
new risen sun reflected at a thousand points from the long 
extended series of muskets, they could not help expecting 
that the wavering, unsteady clusters into which their own 
line was broken would be defeated in a moment, and swept 
from the field. 3 The issue was destined to be far other- 
wise. 

Sir John Cope, who had spent the night at the little 
village of Cockenzie, where his baggage was disposed under 
a guard, hastened to join his troops on first receiving in- 
telligence that the Highlanders were moving towards the 
east. His first impression regarding their movements 
seems to have been, that, after finding it impossible to at- 
tack him either across the morass or through the defiles of 
Preston, they were now about to take up a position on the 
open fields to the east, in order to fight a fair battle when 
daylight should appear. It does not seem to have occurred 
to him that they would make the attack immediately ; and, 

1 Lockhart Papers, ii. 491. 2 Ibid, ii. 449. 3 Home's Works, iii. 92. 



THE BATTLE OF PRESTON. 107 

accordingly, although he thought proper to form his lines, 
and turn them in the direction of the enemy, he was at last 
somewhat disconcerted, and his men were not a little sur- 
prised, when it was given out by the sentries that the High- 
landers were upon them. 1 

The mode of fighting practised at this period by the 
Highlanders, though as simple as can well be conceived, 
was well calculated to set at nought and defeat the tactics 
of a regular soldiery. It has been thus described by the 
Chevalier Johnstone, who was engaged in all the actions 
fought during this campaign : — They advanced with the 
utmost rapidity towards the enemy, gave fire when within 
a musket-length of the object, and then throwing down 
their pieces, drew their swords, and holding* a dirk in their 
left hand along with the target, darted with fury on the 
enemy through the smoke of their fire. When within reach 
of the enemy's bayonets, bending their left knee, they con- 
trived to receive the thrust of that weapon on their targets ; 
then raising their arm, and with it the enemy's point, they 
rushed in upon the soldier, now defenceless, killed him at 
one blow, and were in a moment within the lines, pushing 
right and left with sword and dagger, often bringing down 
two men at once. The battle was thus decided in a moment, 
and all that followed was mere carnage. 

Cope, informed by his retreating sentries that the enemy 
was advancing, had only time to ride once along the front 
of his lines to encourage the men, and was just returned to 
his place on the right of the infantry, when he perceived, 
through the thin sunny mist, the dark clumps of the clans 
rushing swiftly and silently on towards his troops ; those 
which were directly opposite to him being most visible, 
while on the left they faded away in an interminable line 
amongst the darkness from which they seemed gradually 
emerging. The numerous clusters in which they succes- 
sively burst upon his sight — the rapidity with which they 
advanced — the deceptive and indefinite extent given to their 
appearance by the mist — all conspired to appal the royal 
troops. Five of the six cannon were discharged against 

1 The circumstances which lead to this conclusion were the following. 
According to the journal -writer already quoted, the advancing mountaineers, 
on first coming within sight of Cope's army, heard them call out, * Who is 
there ? Who is there ? Cannons ! cannons ! Get ready the cannons, can- 
noniers !' Andrew Henderson, a Whig historian, has also mentioned, in 
his account of the engagement, that the sentries, on first perceiving the 
Highland line through the mist, thought it a hedge which was gradually 
becoming apparent as the light increased. The event, however, was perhaps 
the best proof that the royal army was somewhat taken by surprise. 



108 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the left of the advancing host, with such effect as to make 
that part of the army hover for a moment upon the ad- 
vance ; and one volley of musketry went along* the royal 
lines from right to left as the clans successively came up. 
But all was unavailing against the ferocious resolution of 
the Highlanders. 

The victory began, as the battle had done, among the 
Camerons. That spirited clan, notwithstanding their expo- 
sure to the cannon, and although received with a discharge 
of musketry by the artillery guard, ran on with undaunted 
speed, and were first up to the front of the enemy. Having 
swept over the cannon, they found themselves opposed to a 
squadron of dragoons under Lieutenant-Colonel Whitney, 
which was advancing to attack them. They had only to 
fire a few shots, when these dastards, not yet recovered 
from their former fright, wheeled about, and fled over the 
artillery guard, which was accordingly dispersed. The 
posterior squadron of dragoons, under Colonel Gardiner 
himself, was then ordered to advance to the attack. Their 
gallant old commander led them forward, encouraging them 
as well as he could by the way ; but they had not proceeded 
many steps, when, receiving a few shots from the High- 
landers, they reeled, turned, and followed their companions. 
Locheil had ordered his men to strike at the noses of the 
horses, as the best means of getting' the better of their 
masters ; but they never found a single opportunity of 
practising this ruse, the men having chosen to retreat while 
they were yet some yards distant. 

Hamilton's dragoons, at the other extremity of the army, 
no sooner saw their fellows flying before the Camerons, 
than they also turned about and fled, without having fired 
a carabine, and while the Macdonalds were still at a little 
distance. 

The infantry, when deserted by those from whom they 
were taught to expect support, gave way on all hands, with- 
out having reloaded their pieces, or stained a single bayonet 
with blood. The whole at once threw down their arms, 
either to lighten them in their flight, or to signify that they 
surrendered ; and many fell upon their knees before the 
impetuous Highlanders, to beg the quarter which, in the 
hurry of the moment, could scarcely be given them. One 
small party alone, out of the army, had the resolution to 
make any resistance. They fought for a brief space under 
the command of Colonel Gardiner, who, deserted by his 
own troop, and observing their gallant behaviour, had put 
himself at their head. They only fled when they had 



THE BATTLE OF PRESTON. 109 

suffered considerably, and when their brave leader was cut 
down by numerous wounds. Such was the rapidity with 
which the Highlanders in general bore the royal soldiers off 
the field, that their second line, though only fifty yards be- 
hind, and though it ran fully as fast as the first, on coming 
up to the place, found nothing upon the ground but the 
killed and wounded. 1 The whole battle, indeed, is said to 
have lasted only four minutes. 

In the panic flight which immediately ensued, the High- 
landers used their weapons with unsparing vigour, and per- 
formed many feats, such as might rather adorn the pages 
of some ancient romance than the authentic narrative of a 
modern battle. A small party of Macgregors, in particular, 
bearing for their only arms the blades of scythes, fastened 
end-long upon poles, clove heads to the chin, and cut off 
the legs of horses. With even the broadsword, strength 
and skill enabled them to do prodigious execution. Men's 
feet and hands, and also the feet of horses, were severed 
from the limbs by that powerful weapon ; and it is a well- 
authenticated fact, that ' a Highland gentleman, after 
breaking through Murray's regiment, gave a grenadier a 
blow which not only severed the arm raised to ward it off, 
but cut the skull anmch deep, so that the man immediately 
died.' 2 

While the clans on the right and left behaved with distin- 
guished bravery, a portion of the centre, including some of 
the Lowland tenantry of the Duke of Perth, acted in a 
manner resembling the conduct of the royal troops. They 
are said, on approaching the enemy's lines, to have i stood 
stock-still like oxen.' 3 It was to this regiment that the 
scythe-armed company of Macgregors belonged. These 
at least evinced all the ardour and bravery which were so 
generally displayed that day by their countrymen. Dis- 
regarding the example of their immediate fellows, they 
continued to rush forwards, under the command of their 
captain, Malcolm Macgregor. A space being left betwixt 
them and their clan-regiment, which went on beside the 
Camerons, under command of Glencairnaig, their chief, 
they edged obliquely athwart the field in that direction, in 
order to rank themselves beside their proper banner — an 
evolution which exposed them in a peculiar manner to the 
fire coming at that moment from the British regiments. 

1 Chevalier Johnstone's Memoirs, 37. 

2 Caledonian Mercury, September 25, 1745. 

3 Manuscript by Duncan Macpharig, temporarily in the possession of the 
late Rev. Mr Macgregor, Stirling. 



110 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Their captain fell before this fire, pierced with no fewer than 
five bullets, two of which went quite through his body. 
Stretched on the field, but unsubdued in spirit, he raised 
himself upon his elbow, and cried out, as loud as he could, 
c Look ye, my lads, I'm not dead ; by G — , I shall see if 
any of you does not do his duty ! ' This speech, half whim- 
sical as it was, is said to have communicated an impulse to 
his men, and perhaps contributed, with other acts of indivi- 
dual heroism, to decide the fate of the day. 1 

The general result of the battle of Preston may be stated 
as having been the total overthrow, and almost entire de- 
struction, of the royal army. Most of the infantry falling 
back upon the park-walls of Preston, w T ere there huddled 
together, without the power of resistance, into a confused 
drove, and had either to surrender, or be cut in pieces. 
Many, in vainly attempting to climb over the walls, fell an 
easy prey to the ruthless claymore. Nearly 400, it is said, 
were thus slain, 700 taken, while only about 170 in all suc- 
ceeded in effecting their escape. 

The dragoons, with worse conduct, were much more for- 
tunate. In falling back, they had the good luck to find 
outlets from their respective positions by the roads which 
run along the various extremities of the park-wall, and they 
thus got clear through the village with little slaughter; 
after which, as the Highlanders had no horse to pursue 
them, they were safe. Several officers, among whom were 
Fowkes and Lascelles, escaped to Cockenzie and along 
Seton Sands, in a direction contrary to the general flight. 

The unfortunate Cope had attempted, at the first break of 
Gardiner's dragoons, to stop and rally them, but was borne 
headlong, with the confused bands, through the narrow road 
to the south of the enclosures, notwithstanding all his efforts 
to the contrary. On getting beyond the village, where he 
was joined by the retreating bands of the other regiment, 
he made one anxious effort, with the Earls of Loudon and 
Home, to form and bring them back to charge the enemy, 
now disordered by the pursuit ; but in vain. They fled on, 
ducking their heads along their horses' necks to escape the 
bullets w T hich the pursuers occasionally sent after them. 2 
By using great exertions, and holding pistols to the heads 
of the troopers, Sir John and a few of his officers induced a 
small number of them to halt in a field near St Clement's 
Wells, about two miles from the battle-ground. But, after 
a momentary delay, the accidental firing of a pistol renewed 

1 Chevalier Johnstone's Memoirs. 2 Report of Cope's Examination. 



THE BATTLE OF PRESTON. Ill 

the panic, and they rode off once more in great disorder. 
Sir John Cope, with a portion of them, reached Channelkirk 
at an early hour in the forenoon, and there halted to break- 
fast, and to write a brief note to one of the state officers, re- 
lating the fate of the day. He then resumed his flight, and 
reached Coldstream that night. He next morning proceeded 
to Berwick, whose fortifications seemed competent to give 
the security he required. He everywhere brought the first 
tidings of his own defeat. 

The number of dragoons who accompanied the general 
was about 400 ; besides which, there were perhaps half as 
many who dispersed themselves in different directions. A 
small party which made for the castle of Edinburgh, per- 
mitted themselves to be pursued and galled the whole way 
by a single cavalier, without ever once having the courage 
to turn about and face him. Colquhoun Grant, who had 
the hardihood to perform this feat, was a man of great bodily 
strength, and was animated by a most heroic zeal for the 
interests of the chevalier. After performing some valorous 
deeds on the field of Preston, he mounted the horse of a 
British officer, whom he had brought down with his broad- 
sword, and rode after the fugitive drasroons with all possible 
speed. Within an hour after the battle, the inhabitants of 
Edinburgh were informed of the result, by seeing these 
dispirited men gallopping up their principal street, followed 
by a single enemy ! The troopers got into the castle in 
safety, and Grant, when he arrived there, finding the gate 
closed behind them, stuck into it his bloody poniard, which 
he left in token of defiance. He then rode back, and was 
allowed to pass from the town without interruption. 1 An- 
other single pursuer was less fortunate. This was Mr 
David Threipland, eldest son of Sir David Threipland of 
Fingask, in Perthshire. He was in delicate health, but 
animated by great courag*e and zeal. On his own horse he 
pursued a party of dragoons till they came to the place 
where Cope was endeavouring to rally his troopers near St 
Clement's Wells. Here, pausing a moment, they became 
aware that they were pursued by only a single gentleman, 
with two servants. They turned, and cut him down with 
their swords. He was buried on the spot. ' I remember, 
when a child,' says Sir Walter Scott, ' sitting on his grave, 
where the grass long grew rank and green, distinguishing 
it from the rest of the field. A female of the family then 

1 Information by a surviving friend of Mr Grant. Sir Walter Scott gives a 
somewhat different version of apparently the same story, in which it is 
stated that the dragoons were refused admission.— See Tales of a Grandfather. 



112 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

residing 1 at St Clement's Wells used to tell me the tragedy, 
of which she had been an eye-witness, and showed me, in 
evidence, one of the silver clasps of the unfortunate gentle- 
man's waistcoat.' It is not unworthy of notice, that so 
lately as 1824, in the course of some legal proceedings, a 
lady, who was cousin-german to Mr Threipland, gave evi- 
dence of the fact of his death, stating that she remembered 
being put into mourning on his account. 1 

1 The cowardice of the English,' says the Chevalier John- 
stone, in allusion to their conduct at Preston, 6 surpassed all 
imagination. They threw down their arms, that they 
might run with more speed, thus depriving themselves of 
the only means they had of arresting the vengeance of the 
Highlanders. Of so many men in a condition, from their 
numbers, to preserve order in their retreat, not one thought 
of defending himself. Terror had taken complete possession 
of their minds. I saw,' he continues, i a young Highlander, 
scarcely formed, who was presented to the Prince as a 
prodigy, having killed, it was said, fourteen of the enemy. 
The Prince asked him if this were true. " I do not know," 
replied he, " if I killed them, but I brought fourteen soldiers 
to the ground with my broadsword ! " Another Highlander 
brought ten soldiers to the Prince, whom he had made 
prisoners of war, driving* them before him like a flock of 
sheep. This Highlander, from a rashness without example, 
having pursued a party to some distance from the field of 
battle, along the road between the two enclosures, struck 
down the hindermost with a blow of his sword, calling, at 
the same time, " Down with your arms ! " The soldiers, 
terror-struck, threw down their arms without looking be- 
hind them ; and the Highlander, with a pistol in one hand 
arid his sword in the other, made them do just as he 
pleased.' 

From the eagerness of the Highlanders to secure as much 
plunder as possible, they did not improve their victory by a 
very eager or long-continued pursuit. A great proportion 
remained upon the field, investing themselves with the 
spoils of the slain and wounded, while others busied them- 
selves in ransacking the house of Colonel Gardiner, which 
happened to be immediately adjacent to the field. A small 
party, among whom were the brave Macgregors, continued 

1 The horse on which Mr Threipland rode was observed next year in a fair 
at Perth, by the grieve or land-steward of Fingask, having found its way 
thither in the possession of a horse-dealer, who had probably obtained it from 
some marauding Highlander. The animal was purchased with a melancholy 
pleasure by the family, and kept sacred from work till the end of its days. 



THE BATTLE OF PRESTOX. 113 

the chase for a mile and a half, when, in the words of Dun- 
can Macpharig, ' the Prince came up, and successively took 
Glencairnaig and Major Evan in his arms, congratulating* 
them upon the result of the fight. He then commanded 
the whole of the clan Gregor to be collected in the middle 
of the field ; and a table being covered, he sat down with 
Glencairnaig and Major Evan to refresh himself, all the 
rest standing round as a guard, and each receiving a glass 
of wine and a little bread/ In regard to Charles's conduct 
after the battle, the report of another eye-witness, Andrew 
Henderson, author of a historical account of the campaign, 
is as follows : — i I saw the chevalier, after the battle, stand- 
ing by his horse, dressed like an ordinary captain, in a 
coarse plaid and large blue bonnet, with a narrow plain 
gold lace about it, his boots and knees much dirtied, the 
effects of his having fallen in a ditch. He was exceeding-ly 
merry, and twice cried out, with a hearty laugh, " My 
Highlanders have lost their plaids." But his jollity seemed 
somewhat damped when he looked upon the seven standards 
which had been taken from the dragoons ; at this sight he 
could not help observing, with a sigh, " We have missed 
some of them ! " After this he refreshed himself upon the 
field, and with the greatest composure ate a slice of cold 
beef and drank a glass of wine.' Mr Henderson ought to 
have mentioned that Charles had, before thus attending to 
his own personal wants, spent several hours in providing 
for the relief of the wounded of both armies ; preserving 
(to use the language of Mr Home), from temper or from 
judgment, every appearance of moderation and humanity. 
It remains to be stated that, after giving orders for the 
disposal of the prisoners, and for securing the spoils, which 
comprised the baggage, tents, cannon, and a military chest 
containing £4000, he left the field, and rode towards Pinkie 
House, the seat of the Marquis of Tweeddale, where he 
lodged for the night. 

Though the general behaviour of the king's army on this 
memorable morning was the reverse of soldierly, there were 
not wanting in it instances of respectable conduct. The 
venerable Gardiner, whose name has been rendered familiar 
by the affectionate biography of his friend Doddridge, 
afforded a noble example of fidelity to duty. On the previous 
afternoon, though so weak that he had to be carried forward 
from Haddington in a postchaise, he urged the propriety of 
instantly attacking* the Highlanders, and even, it is said, 
offered Cope his neighbouring mansion of Bankton as a 
present, provided he would consent to that measure, which 

VOL. V. H 



114 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

he felt convinced was the only one that could insure victory. 
When he found this counsel decidedly rejected, he gave all 
up for lost, and began to prepare his mind by pious exer- 
cises for the fate which he expected to meet in the morn- 
ing. In the battle, notwithstanding his gloomy anticipa- 
tions, he behaved with the greatest fortitude, making more 
than one of the insurgents fall around him. Deserted by 
his dragoons, and severely wounded, he put himself at the 
head of a small body of foot which still refused to yield ; 
and he only ceased to fight when brought to the ground 
by severe and repeated wounds. He expired in the manse 
of Tranent, after having rather breathed than lived a few 
hours. 1 

Another redeeming instance of self-devotion was presented 
by Captain Brymer of Lees's regiment, the only officer in 
the army who had ever before seen the Highlanders attack 
regular troops. He had witnessed the wild onset of the 
Macdonalds at Sheriffmuir, which impressed him with a 
respect for the instinctive valour of the race. At Hadding- 
ton, two nights before, when all the rest of the officers were 
talking lightly of the enemy, and anticipating an easy, 
victory, Brymer retired to solitary meditation, assured that 
the danger which approached was by no means incon- 
siderable. When the dread moment of fight arrived, he 
disdained to fly like the rest, but fell at his station, * with 
his face to the*foe. ? 

The wounded of the royal army were treated by their 
conquerors with a degree of humanity which might have 
been well imitated by the regular troops on a subsequent 
occasion. The conduct of the Prince has been spoken of: 
that of his lieutenant-general, Lord George Murray, was 
not less kind, if we are to believe his own statement. A 
party, whose wounds were not very severe, was conducted 
by Lord George to Musselburgh, he walking by their side, 
and allowing some of them to use his horses. At Mussel- 
burgh he obtained accommodation for them in an empty 
house, and slept beside them that night, to protect them 
from any violence on the part of his troops. 2 This precau- 

1 Doddridge's Life of Colonel Gardiner. A large thorn-tree, in the centre 
of the battle-ground, marks the spot where Gardiner fell. He was buried in 
the north-west corner of the church of Tranent, where eight of his children 
had been previously interred. Some years ago, on the ground being incident- 
ally disturbed, his head was found marked by the stroke of the scythe which 
despatched him, and still adhered to by his military club, which, bound firmly 
with silk, and dressed with powder and pomatum, seemed as fresh as it 
could have been on the day he died. 

2 Jacobite Memoirs, 42. 



THE BATTLE OF PRESTON. 115 

tion seems scarcely to have been necessary. The Clanranald 
journalist says/ ' Whatever notion our Low country people 
may entertain of the Highlanders, I can attest they gave 
many proofs this day of their humanity and mercy. Not 
only did I often hear our common clansmen ask the soldiers 
if they wanted quarter, and not only did we, the officers, 
exert our utmost pains to save those who were stubborn, or 
who could not make themselves understood, but I saw some 
of our private men, after the battle, run to Port Seton for 
ale and other liquors to support the wounded. As one proof 
for all, of my own particular observation, I saw a High- 
lander carefully, and with patient kindness, carry a poor 
wounded soldier on his back into a house, where he left 
him, with a sixpence to pay his charges. In all this/ adds 
the journalist, 'we followed not only the dictates of huma- 
nity, but also the orders of our Prince, who acted in every- 
thing as the true father of his country.' 

Of the Highlanders themselves, only thirty were killed, 
including three officers, and about seventy or eighty 
wounded. The greater part of the wounded of both armies 
were taken into Colonel Gardiner's house, where it was 
thought possible, a few years ago, to see upon the oaken 
floors the dark outlines or prints of the tartaned warriors, 
formed by their bloody garments, where they lay. 2 

Whatever humanity may have been displayed by the 
common Highlanders towards the wounded, they exhibited 
quite as much activity in despoiling" the slain. Every 
article they conceived to be of the least value they eagerly 
appropriated ; often, in their ignorance of civilised life, 
making the most ludicrous mistakes. One who had got a 
watch, sold it soon afterwards to some person for a trifle, 
and remarked, when the bargain was concluded, with an 
air of great self-congratulation, that he was glad to be quit 
of it, for it had died last night ; the machine having in 
reality stopped for want of winding up. Another ex- 
changed a horse for a horse-pistol. Rough old High- 

1 Lockhart Papers. 

2 The greater part of the slain were interred at the north-east corner of the 
park-wall so often alluded to, where the ground is still perceptibly elevated 
in consequence. A considerable number were also buried round the thorn- 
tree already mentioned, which is said to have marked the centre of Cope's first 
line. The country people, of whom it might truly be said, that 

* with more dismay 
They saw the fight, than those that made the fray,' 

were drawn forth and employed in this disagreeable duty ; which they per- 
formed by carting quantities of earth, and emptying it upon the bloody 
heaps. 



116 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

landers were seen going with the fine shirts of the Eng-^ 
lish officers over the rest of their clothes, while little boys 
went strutting about with large gold-laced cocked-hats on 
their heads, and bandaliers dangling down to their heels. 
One of the Highlanders was seen soon after passing through 
Stirling, on his way to the north, carrying a military saddle 
on his back : he probably thought he had secured a com- 
petency for life. 1 

1 Information by a bishop of the Scottish Episcopal church.— A quantity of 
chocolate, found in General Cope's carriage, was afterwards sold publicly in 
the streets of Perth, under the denomination of Johnnie Cope's saiu; that is, 
salve. The carriage itself was employed to carry home old Robertson of 
Struan, who had come down from the Highlands with his clan, but was 
unable, from age, to accompany the expedition any farther. At that time 
there was no coach-road to Struan's residence ; but when he had driven as 
far as he could, the vehicle was carried forward over the remaining tract by 
the clansmen. After lying in the courtyard at Mount Alexander till almost 
rotten, it was broken up for firewood. 

In the blind eagerness of the Highlanders for spoil, it is said that they 
plundered many of the inhabitants of Edinburgh and other neighbouring 
towns who came, during the course of the day, to see the battle-ground. 
The whimsical Skirving, in his ballad of Tranent Muir, says— 

' That afternoon, when a' was done, 

I gaed to see the fray, man ; 

But had I wist what after past, 

I'd better stayed away, man. 

On Seton sands, wi' nimble hands, 

They picked my pockets bare, man ; 
But I wish ne'er to dree sic fear, 

For a' the sum and mair, man.' 

In this rude but clever composition, the honest farmer embodies almost the 
whole talk of the times regarding the actors on both sides. He animadverts 
in severe terms upon the conduct of the British officers, one of whom betrayed 
an especial degree of cowardice, and that under circumstances which also 
disgraced his humanity. This was a Lieutenant Smith, of Hamilton's regi- 
ment, and of Hibernian extraction :— 

' When Major Bowie, that worthy soul, 

Was brought down to the ground, man, 
His horse being shot, it was his lot 

For to get many a wound, man. 
Lieutenant Smith, of Irish birth, 

Frae whom he called for aid, man, 
Being full of dread, lap owre his head, 

And wadna be gainsaid, man. 

He made sic haste, sae spurred his beast, 

'Twas little there he saw, man ; 
To Berwick rade, and falsely said 

The Scots were rebels a', man. 
But let that end, for weel it's kenned 

His use and wont's to lie, man ; 
The Teague is naught— he never faught 

When he had room to fly, man.' 

So famous did this scandal become in a little time, that an advertisement 
was inserted in the Edinburgh Courant of the 6th of January 1746, to the 



PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD. 117 

"When the search for spoil had ceased, the Highlanders 
began to collect provisions. They fixed their mess-room in 
one of the houses of Tranent, and, sending abroad through 
the neighbouring parks, seized such sheep as they could con- 
veniently catch. The people of the village have a tradition 
of their coming straggling in every now and then during 
the day, each with a sheep upon his back, which he threw 
down at the general depot, with the exclamation, l Tare's 
mhair o' Cope's paagage ! ' When men's minds are agitated 
by any mirthful or triumphant emotion, they are pleased 
with wonderfully small jokes. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD. 

What says King Bolingbroke ? 

Richard the Second, 

The Camerons entered Edinburgh scarcely three hours 
after the battle, playing 1 their pipes with might and main, 
and exhibiting, with many marks of triumph, the colours 
they had taken from Cope's dragoons. 1 But the return of 
the main body of the army was reserved for the succeeding 
day (Sunday), when an attempt was made to impress the 
citizens with as high an idea as possible of the victory they 

following effect :— ' Whereas there has been a scandalous report spread, to 
the prejudice of Lieutenant Peter Smith of General Hamilton's dragoons, that 
he refused to assist Major Bowles, when dismounted at Preston : I, the said 
Major Bowles, do affirm it to be an infamous falsehood, Lieutenant Smith not 
being in the same squadron with me ; nor did any officer of the corps refuse 
me his assistance on that occasion. Witness my hand, at Prestonpans, this 
1st of January 1746. (Signed) Richard Bowles.' It is needless to say that 
the lame and limited circulation of this exculpatory evidence went but little 
way to recover the unfortunate lieutenant's fame. Smith seems, therefore, 
to have at last aimed at another mode of redress. He is said to have come to 
Haddington, with the intention of challenging Mr Skirving, and to have sent 
a friend to the house of that gentleman, in order to settle the preliminaries of 
a personal combat. Here, however, poor Smith was quite as much at fault 
as ever. The farmer was busy forking his dunghill when the friend ap- 
proached, whose hostile intentions he no sooner learned, than he proceeded 
to put that safe barrier between his own person and that of the challenger ; 
after which, he patiently waited till the gentleman disclosed his errand. 
When he had heard all, and paused a little to consider it, he at last replied 
with great coolness, ' Gang awa back to Mr Smith ; tell him that I hae nae 
time to come to Haddington to gie him satisfaction ; but say, if he likes to 
come here, I'll tak a look o' him ; and if I think I'm fit to fecht him, I'll fecht 
him ; and if no, I'll just do as he did — I'll rin awa ! ' This Mr Skirving was 
the father of a very clever artist in the department of crayon portraits, long 
well known in Edinburgh. 
1 The Wanderer, or Surprising Escape (Glasgow, 1752), p. 43. 



118 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

had achieved. The clans marched in one long extended 
line into the lower gate of the city, with bagpipes exultingly 
playing the cavalier air, 'The king shall enjoy his own 
again.' 1 They bore, besides their own standards, those 
which had been taken from the royal army ; and they dis- 
played, with equally ostentatious pride, the vast accession 
of dress and personal ornament which they had derived 
from the vanquished. In the rear of their own body came 
the prisoners, 2 at least half as numerous as themselves, and 
then followed the wounded in carts. 3 At the end of all, 
were the baggage and cannon under a strong guard. They 
paraded through the principal streets of the city, as if 
anxious to leave no one unimpressed with the sight of their 
good fortune. Charles himself did not accompany the pro- 
cession, but came in the evening to Holyroodhouse, where, 
according to the Caledonian Mercury, he was ( welcomed 
with the loudest acclamations of the people.' 

It is difficult to describe the extravagant rejoicings with 
which the Jacobites hailed the news of Preston. They 
received the messengers and homeward-bound Highlanders, 
who everywhere dispersed the intelligence, with unbounded 
hospitality ; and they no longer made any scruple to dis- 
close those sentiments in public which they had hitherto 
been obliged to conceal as treasonable. The gentlemen 
drank fathom-deep healths to the Prince, who, in their own 
language, 6 could eat a dry crust, sleep on pease-straw, take 
his dinner in four minutes, and win a battle in live ;' * whilst 
the ladies busied themselves in procuring locks of his hair, 
miniature portraits of his person, and ribbons on which he 
was represented as 'the Highland laddie.' But perhaps 
the most extraordinary instance of individual zeal in his 
behalf was one afforded by an old non-jurant clergyman 
of the Scottish Episcopal communion, who had attended 
his camp before Preston, as some of the violent Presbyte- 
rians, on the other hand, followed that of Cope. This 
zealous partisan, immediately after the battle, set out on 
foot for his place of residence beyond Doune in Perthshire ; 
and, having travelled considerably more than fiftj miles, 

1 Boyce's History, 82. 

2 The prisoners were confined, the officers in Queensberry House, and the 
privates in the jail and church of the Canongate. The wounded were com- 
mitted to the Royal Infirmary, where the utmost possible pains was taken 
to heal them. In the course of a few days after the battle, the officers were 
liberated on parole, and permitted to lodge in the town. Afterwards, on one 
person breaking his word by going into the castle, the whole were sent to 
Cupar Angus ; and the private men were put into custody at Logierait in 
Athole. 

3 Boyce's History. 4 Caledonian Mercury. 



PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD. 119 

next morning* gave out the news of the victory from his own 
pulpit, at the ordinary hour of worship, invoking a thousand 
blessings on the arms and person of the chevalier. 1 

The conduct of the Prince himself was marked by a 
becoming moderation. On Monday the 23d, he issued 
several proclamations, in one of which he expressed his 
anxiety that no interruption should be experienced by 
persons passing to and from Edinburgh on business, and 
formally granted protection to the inhabitants and the 
country people around l from all insults, seizures, injuries, 
and abuses of our army against them respectively.' In 
another, he alluded to a wish which had been expressed by 
many, that his victory should be marked by public rejoic- 
ings, and added, l We, reflecting that, however glorious it 
may have been to us, and however beneficial to the nation 
in general, as the principal means, under God, for the reco- 
very of their liberty ; yet, in so far as it has been obtained 
by the effusion of the blood of his majesty's subjects, and 
has involved many unfortunate people in great calamity, 
we hereby forbid any outward demonstrations of public 
joy ; admonishing all true friends to their king and country 
to return thanks to God for his goodness towards them, as 
we hereby do for ourselves.' 

An addition to this proclamation was elicited by a cir- 
cumstance which came into notice on the preceding day. 
On the Saturday evening Charles sent messengers to the 
clergy of the city, requesting them to hold public worship 
as usual, and apprehend no disturbance from him. To his 
surprise, not one of the regular clergy appeared in his pul- 
pit on the Sunday : it was" found that they had all deserted 
the town. He therefore added to the above proclamation, 
'And we hereby repeat, what we have so often declared, 
that no interruption shall be given to public worship, but, 
on the contrary, all protection to those concerned in it ; and 
if, notwithstanding hereof, any shall be found neglecting 
their duty in that particular, let the blame lie entirely at 
their own door, as we are resolved to inflict no penalty that 
may possibly look like persecution.' The clergy, as a body, 
continued absent during the remainder of his stay in Edin- 
burgh. It has been stated 2 'that they sent a deputation of 

1 Information by a bishop of the Scottish Episcopal church. 

2 Tales of a Grandfather, third series, iii. 38. During Charles's stay at 
Holyroodhouse, a sermon was preached before him from Joshua xxii. 22, 
' The Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel he 
shall know; if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression against the Lord, save 
us not this day.'— Information by the late Mr George Robertson, author of 'Ayr- 
shire Families ,' &c. 



120 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

their number to know whether they would be permitted, in 
the course of divine service, to pray for King 1 George, when 
it was answered, on the part of Charles, that to grant the 
request would be in so far to give the lie to those family 
pretensions for the assertion of which he was in arms, but 
that, notwithstanding, he would give them his royal assur- 
ance that they should not be called to account for any im- 
prudent language they might use in the pulpit.' This assur- 
ance, if it was ever made, did not induce any of the minis- 
ters to return to duty. There was, however, a suburban 
clergyman, by name Macvicar, who, having some counte- 
nance from the guns of the castle, continued to preach as 
usual, and offer up the ordinary prayers for the king. He 
also added, though several of the Highland army were pre- 
sent, c As to this young person who has come among us 
seeking an earthly crown, do Thou, in thy merciful favour, 
grant him a heavenly one ! ? l 

Amongst other traits of real or affected liberality, the 
Prince proclaimed immunity to all who might have distin- 
guished themselves by acting against himself, his father, or 
grandfather, provided they should, within twenty days, 
formally engage to live inoffensively for the future. 

He was at the same time obliged to publish an edict less 
creditable to his little army. It appears that, in searching 
for arms, the Highlanders used some license in regard to 
other matters of property ; though it is also allowed that 
many persons unconnected with the army assumed the 
appearance of clansmen, and were the chief perpetrators of 
the felonies complained of. Whole bands, indeed, went 
about the country, showing forged commissions, and affect- 
ing to sell protections in Charles's name, for which they 
exacted considerable sums of money. 2 The Highland army 
were partly blameable for these misdemeanours, because 
they had opened the public jails wherever they came, and 

1 The ipsissima verba of this singular prayer, as given in Ray's History of 
the Rebellion, were these : ' Bless the king ; thou knows what king I mean 
— may the crown sit long easy upon his head, &c. And for the man that is 
come among us to seek an earthly crown, we beseech Thee in mercy to take 
him to thyself, and give him a crown of glory ! ' 

2 Among the rest, a certain malefactor named Ratcliff, who has been 
made well known to the public by means of a popular novel, seems to have 
been by no means the least active. It is mentioned in the Caledonian Mer- 
cury for October 11, that ' the very villain James Ratcliff, who has spent 
his whole life in pilfering and robbing, and who has escaped twenty several 
times from jail, particularly twice when under sentence of death in this city, 
was yesternight apprehended in the Grassmarke* ... and committed to the 
Thief's Hold. He had gone about the country since he last got out of jail, 
at ( the head of a gang of villains in Highland and Lowland dress, imposing 
upon and robbing honest people.' 



PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD. 121 

let loose the culprits; and because, since their arrival in 
Edinburgh, the sword of justice had been suspended. 
Charles, however, who was not personally blameable, made 
every exertion to suppress practices which tended so much 
to bring his cause into bad repute ; and his exertions seem 
to have been not altogether ineffectual. 1 It unfortunately 
happened that, while he did all he could to prevent small 
or individual robberies, the necessities of his own exchequer 
compelled him to authorise others of considerable magni- 
tude upon the public bodies of the kingdom. From the 
city of Edinburgh he exacted a thousand tents, six thousand 
pairs of shoes, and a vast quantity of smaller articles, for 
the use of his troops ; the expense of which was so great, as 
to call for an assessment of half-a-crown a pound on the 
rental of the city. He seized all the goods in the custom- 
houses of Leith and Borrowstouness, and immediately con- 
verted them into money, by selling them back to the smug- 
glers from whom they had been taken. From the city of 
Glasgow he raised £5500. 

Though with 2000 men he had now obtained possession 
of Scotland, excepting the fortresses, it was impossible with 

1 It is the confident assertion of all who witnessed and have described the 
transactions of this time, that many persons really belonging to the High- 
land army did commit acts of depredation. It was common, for instance, 
for well-dressed persons to be stopped in the streets by men who presented 
their pieces, with a threatening aspect, and who, on being asked what 
they wanted, usually answered, 'a paapee,' that is, a halfpenny. Some- 
times these persons were contented with a still humbler tribute— a pinch 
of snuff. When we consider the extreme moderation of these demands, 
we can scarcely visit the practice with anything but a smile. Even this 
was only practised by the canaille of the clans, or rather perhaps by those 
loose persons who hang upon the skirts of all armies, and whose only motive 
for oarrying arms is, that they may take advantage, for their own proper 
profit, of the license which more or less accompanies the presence of all 
military bodies whatever. The general tradition of the Lowlands is, that 
the Highlanders behaved with great civility as they were advancing in their 
expedition, and that it was only when retreating, and when their pride of 
spirit had been in a great measure destroyed, that their conduct in this respect 
was to be complained of. x 

A worthy Quaker in Edinburgh, by name Erskine, and by trade a 
brewer, called upon Charles at Holyroodhouse, to complain of a robbery 
which had been committed upon him by a troop wearing the Highland 
dress and cognisance, and concluded his remonstrance with these words : 
* Verily, friend Charles, thou art harder to deal with than our present ruler : 
George only takes a part of our substance, but thou takest it all/ It is said 
that the Prince told this strange expostulator that what he had lost was 
little enough to compensate for the long arrears of tax and duty which he 
was owing to the king de jure. But he appears, on the contrary, to have 
taken measures for bringing the perpetrators of the robbery to deserved 
punishment. There is an advertisement in the Courant of the time, pro- 
ceeding from him, in which he offers a reward for the robbers, and requires 
all to whom the stolen goods might be offered for sale to restore them to the 
owner. 



122 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

that small force to take any immediate step for the advance- 
ment of his cause. It was necessary to wait for some time, 
that his forces might be augmented, either by accessions of 
his Scottish partisans, or by aid from abroad. He therefore 
encamped his troops at Duddingstone, and, taking up his 
own residence in Holyroodhouse, enjoyed for a short 
period the privileges of undisputed sovereignty. Even at 
this most brilliant part of his career his deportment was 
generally thought pensive. He nevertheless gave a few 
balls to the ladies 1 who favoured his cause, and generally 
dined in public with his officers. On these occasions, if 
not uniformly cheerful, he at least endeavoured to appear 
pleased with what he saw of Scotland, its people, and what- 
ever was peculiar to it. He was heard to say at dinner, 
that, should his enterprise be successful, he would make 
Scotland his Hanover, and Holyrood his Herenhause?i — thus 
conveying at once a compliment to the Scotch, and a sar- 
casm at the partiality of King George for his native domi- 
nions and palace. At his balls, which were held in the 
picture-gallery, he took care to dress very elegantly, wear- 
ing on some occasions i a habit of fine silk tartan (with 
crimson-velvet breeches), and at other times an English 
court dress, with the ribbon, star, and order of the garter. ? 
Here his affability and great personal grace wrought him 
high favour with the ladies, who, as we learn from the 
letters of President Forbes, became generally so zealous in 
his cause, as to have some serious effect in inducing their 
admirers to declare for the Prince. There was, we know 
for certain, a Miss Lumsden, who plainly told her lover, a 
young artist named Robert Strange, that he might think 
no more of her unless he should immediately join Prince 
Charles, and thus actually prevailed upon him to take up 
arms. It may be added that he survived the enterprise, 
escaped with great difficulty, and married the lady. He 
was afterwards the best line engraver of his time, and re- 
ceived the honour of knighthood from George III. 2 White 
ribbons and breast-knots became at this time conspicuous 
articles of female attire in private assemblies. The ladies 
also showed considerable zeal in contributing plate and 
other articles for the use of the chevalier at the palace, 
and in raising pecuniary subsidies for him. Many a posset- 

1 A tune to which he danced with Lady Betty Wemyss on one or more of 
these occasions has been preserved and published. 

2 Miss Lumsden, who was a most accomplished and high-minded person, 
was sister of Mr Andrew Lumsden, an adberent of the Prince. Mr Strange 
had no predilection for the Stuart cause, but solely obeyed the dictates of his 
lady-love. 



PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD. 123 

dish and snuff-box, many a treasured necklace and repeater, 
many a jewel which had adorned its successive generations 
of family beauties, was at this time sold or laid in pledge, 
to raise a little money for the service of Prince Charlie. 1 

The external graces and accomplishments of the Prince 
have never been denied ; but much doubt has been ex- 
pressed whether he possessed the genuine qualities of head 
and heart which would have given him true esteem, had he 
been established on the throne. Without here entering upon 
the whole question, it may at least be asserted with confi- 
dence, that, throughout the affair of 1745-6, he gave eminent 
proofs of a merciful and forgiving disposition, insomuch as 
to offend many adherents, and showed himself to be superior 
to all low and cruel arts for advancing his cause. Mr Max- 
well of Kirkconnel, who joined him at Edinburgh, and has 
left a memoir of the campaign, 2 presents the following illus- 

1 One of his officers has given the following account of the Prince's daily 
life at Holyroodhouse :— ' In the morning, before the council met, the Prince 
Regent had a levee of his officers, and other people who favoured his cause. 
Upon the rising of the council, which often sat very long— for his counsellors 
frequently differed in opinion with one another, and sometimes with him — 
he dined in public with his principal officers. After dinner, he rode out to 
Duddingstone (where the army lay encamped after their return to Edinburgh). 
In the evening he returned to Holyroodhouse, and received the ladies who 
came to his drawing-room. He then supped in public, and generally there 
was music at supper, and a ball afterwards.'— Home's History. 

The following description of Charles was drawn during his stay at Holyrood- 
house by an Englishman, who was sent from York in the middle of October 
as a spy, to report upon the appearance of himself and his forces : — ' I was in- 
troduced to him on the 17th, when he asked me several questions as to the 
number of the troops, and the affections of the people of England. The au- 
dience lasted for a quarter of an hour, and took place in the presence of other 
two persons. The young chevalier is about five feet eleven inches high, very 
proportionably made ; wears his own hair, has a full forehead, a small but 
lively eye, a round brown-complexioned face ; nose and mouth pretty small ; 
full under the chin ; not a long neck ; under his jaw a pretty many pimples. 
He is always in a Highland habit, as are all about him. When I saw him, 
he had a short Highland plaid {tartan) waistcoat ; breeches of the same ; a 
blue garter on, and a St Andrew's cross, hanging by a green ribbon, at his 
button-hole, but no star. He had his boots on, as he always has. He dines 
every day in public. All sorts of people are admitted to see him then. He 
constantly practises all the arts of condescension and popularity— talks fami- 
liarly to the meanest Highlanders, and makes them very fair promises.' — 
Excerpt from a MS. in the possession of the late George Chalmers, Esq. given 
in his Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 717- That learned antiquary adds, that the descrip- 
tion corresponds with a bust of Charles by Le Moine, after his return to Paris. 

The description which the spy gives of the Highlanders is also worthy of 
quotation, though not flattering. ' They consist,' he says, ' of an odd medley 
of gray-beards and no-beards— old men fit to drop into the grave, and young 
boys whose swords are near equal to their weight, and I really believe more 
than their length. Four or five thousand may be very good determined men ; 
but the rest are mean, dirty, villanous-looking rascals, who seem more anxious 
about plunder than their Prince, and would be better pleased with four shil- 
lings than a crown. 

2 Printed at Edinburgh, 1841. 4to. 



124 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

trations of this point: — ( Everybody/ says he, 'was mightily 
taken with the Prince's figure and personal behaviour. 
There was but one voice about them. Those whom interest 
or prejudice made a runaway to his cause, could not help 
acknowledging that they wished him well in all other re- 
spects, and could hardly blame him for his present under- 
taking. Sundry things had concurred to raise his character 
to the highest pitch, besides the greatness of the enterprise, 
and the conduct that had hitherto appeared in the execution 
of it. There were several instances of good nature and 
humanity that had made a great impression on people's 
minds. I shall confine myself to two or three. Immediately 
after the battle, as the Prince was riding along the ground 
that Cope's army had occupied a few minutes before, one of 
the officers came up to congratulate him, and said, pointing 
to the killed, " Sir, there are your enemies at your feet." The 
Prince, far from exulting, expressed a great deal of com- 
passion for his father's deluded subjects, whom he declared 
he was heartily sorry to see in that posture. Next day, 
w T hen the Prince was at Pinkie House, a citizen of Edin- 
burgh came to make some representation to Secretary 
Murray about the tents that city was ordered to furnish 
against a certain day. Murray happened to be out of the 
way, which the Prince hearing of, called to have the 
gentleman brought to him, saying he would rather despatch 
the business, whatever it was, himself, than have the gentle- 
man wait, which he did by granting everything that was 
asked. So much affability in a young Prince flushed with 
victory, drew encomiums even from his enemies. But what 
gave the people the highest idea of him, was the negative 
he gave to a thing that very nearly concerned his interest, 
and upon which the success of his enterprise perhaps de- 
pended. It was proposed to send one of the prisoners to 
London, to demand of that court a cartel for the exchange 
of prisoners taken, and to be taken, during the war, and to 
intimate that a refusal would be looked upon as a resolution 
on their part to give no quarter. It was visible a cartel 
would be of great advantage to the Prince's affairs; his 
friends would be more ready to declare for him if they had 
nothing to fear but the chances of war in the field ; and if 
the court of London refused to settle a cartel, the Prince 
was authorised to treat his prisoners in the same mariner as 
the Elector of Hanover was determined to treat such of the 
Prince's friends as fell into his hands. It was urged that a 
few examples would induce the court of London to comply. 
It was to be presumed that the officers of the English army 



PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD. 125 

would make a point of it. * * Though this scheme was 
plausible, and represented as very important, the Prince 
could never be brought into it ; it was below him, he said, 
to make empty threats, and he would never put such as 
those into execution ; he would never in cold blood take 
away lives which he had saved in the heat of action at the 
peril of his own. These were not the only proofs of good 
nature the Prince gave about this time. Every day pro- 
duced something new of this kind. 1 These things softened 
the rigour of a military government, which was only im- 
puted to the necessity of his affairs, and which he endea- 
voured to make as gentle and easy as possible. 7 

As yet, excepting a letter he had addressed to Lord Barry- 
more from Perth, Charles had had no correspondence with 
the friends of his family in England. On the day after the 
battle of Preston, he despatched an agent, named Hickson, 
with instructions drawn up, probably by himself, in the 
following brief but forcible terms : — ' You are hereby 
authorised and directed to repair forthwith to England, 
and there notify to my friends, and particularly to those 
in the north and north-west, the wonderful success with 
which it has hitherto pleased God to favour my endeavours 
for their deliverance. You are to let them know that it is 
my full intention, in a few days, to move towards them ; 
and that they will be inexcusable before God anal man, if 
they do not all in their power to assist and support me in 
such an undertaking. What I demand and expect is, that 
as many of them as can, should be ready to join me ; and 
that they should take care to provide provisions and money, 

1 Perhaps we are to consider in this light a ceremony which he consented 
to perform under the following circumstances :— When at Perth, he had been 
petitioned by a poor woman to touch her daughter, a child of seven years, who 
had been afflicted with the king's evil ever since her infancy. He excused 
himself by pleading want of time, but directed that the girl should be brought 
to him at Edinburgh ; to which she was accordingly despatched, under the 
care of a sick -nurse, and a day was appointed when she should be introduced 
to his presence in the palace. When the child was brought in, he was found 
in the picture-gallery, which served as his ordinary audience-chamber, sur- 
rounded by his principal officers and by many ladies. He caused a circle to 
be cleared, within which the child was admitted, together with her attend- 
ant, and a priest in his canonicals. The patient was then stripped, and placed 
upon her knees in the centre of the circle. The clergyman having pronounced 
an appropriate prayer, Charles approached the kneeling girl, and with great 
solemnity touched the sores, pronouncing at every different application the 
words, * I touch, but God heal ! ' The ceremony was concluded by another 
prayer from the priest ; and the patient, being again dressed, was carried 
round the circle, and presented with little sums of money by all present. The 
story goes on to say that, precisely twenty-one days from the date of her being 
submitted to Charles's touch, the ulcers closed and healed, and nothing re- 
mained to show that she had been afflicted except the scars or marks left 
upon the skin ! These marks my informant had himself touched. 



126 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

that the country may suffer as little as possible by the 
march of my troops. Let them know that there is no more 
time for deliberation ; now or never is the icord. I am 

RESOLVED TO CONQUER, OR PERISH. If this last should 

happen, let them judge what they and their posterity have 
to expect. C. P. R.' Hickson was apprehended on the 
27th at Newcastle, with this document in his cloak-bag*. 
He was put into prison, where he next morning attempted 
to take away his life by cutting his throat, but without 
immediately succeeding in his object. 1 What afterwards 
became of him does not appear. • 

On the 10th of October, Charles issued a proclamation 
! unto all his majesty's subjects, of what degree soever/ in 
which he made an earnest appeal to their affections, and 
took occasion to explain his views on some important points 
in the political state of the country. 2 He declared that his 
father's sole intention was Ho reinstate all his subjects in the 
full enjoyment of their religion, laws, and liberties.' 'Our 
present attempt,' said he, c is not undertaken in order to 
enslave a free people, but to redress and remove the encroach- 
ments made upon them ; not to impose upon any a religion 
which they dislike, but to secure them all in the enjoyment 
of those which are respectively at present established 
amongst them either in England, Scotland, or Ireland.' 
He promised to respect the national debt, but said he could 
upon no account be induced to ratify the union. He alluded 
to the endeavours which were made by ill-designing men 
to prejudice the people against himself and his undertaking. 
' Do not,' says he, i the pulpits and congregations of the 
clergy, as well as your weekly papers, ring with the dreadful 
threats of popery, slavery, tyranny, and arbitrary power, 
which are now ready to be imposed upon you by the for- 
midable powers of France and Spain? Is not my royal 
father represented as a blood-thirsty tyrant, breathing out 
nothing but destruction to all who will not immediately 
embrace an odious religion ? Or have I myself been better 
used ? But listen only to the naked truth. 

' I, with my own money, hired a small vessel, ill-supplied 
with money, arms, or friends ; I arrived in Scotland, at- 
tended by seven persons; I publish the king my father's 
declaration, and proclaim his title, with pardon in one hand, 

1 Culloden Papers, 226. 

2 Lord Mahon expresses his opinion that this document was of his own 
composition, notwithstanding that Mr Murray of Broughton, in his examina- 
tion, states it to have been drawn up by Sir Thomas Sheridan and Sir James 
Steuart. 



PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD. 127 

and in the other liberty of conscience, and the most solemn 
promises to grant whatever a free parliament shall propose 
for the happiness of a people. I have, I confess, the greatest 
reason to adore the goodness of Almighty God, who has in 
so remarkable a manner protected me and my small army 
through the many dangers to which we were at first ex- 
posed, and who has led me in the way to victory, and to the 
capital of this ancient kingdom, amidst the acclamations of 
the king my father's subjects. Why, then, is so much pains 
taken to spirit up the minds of the people against this my 
undertaking ? 

1 The reason is obvious ; it is, lest the real sense of the 
nation's present sufferings should blot out the remembrance 
of past misfortunes, and of the outcries formerly raised 
against the royal family. Whatever miscarriages might 
have given occasion to them, they have been more than 
atoned for since ; and the nation has now an opportunity of 
being secured against the like for the future. 

1 That our family has suffered exile during these fifty- 
seven years, everybody knows. Has the nation, during 
that period of time, been the more happy and flourishing 
for it ? Have you found reason to love and cherish your 
governors, as the fathers of the people of Great Britain and 
Ireland ? Has a family, upon whom a faction unlawfully 
bestowed the diadem of a rightful prince, retained a due 
sense of so great a trust and favour? Have you found 
more humanity and condescension in those who were not 
born to a crown, than in my royal forefathers ? Have their 
ears been open to the cries of the people ? Have they, or 
do they consider only the interest of these nations ? Have 
you reaped any other benefit from them than an immense 
load of debts ? If I am answered in the affirmative, why 
has their government been so often railed at in all your 
public assemblies ? Why has the nation been so long crying 
out in vain for redress against the abuse of parliaments, 
upon account of their long duration, the multitude of place- 
men which occasions their venality, the introduction of 
penal laws, and, in general, against the miserable situation 
of the kingdom at home and abroad ? All these and many 
more inconveniences must now be removed, unless the 
people of Great Britain be already so far corrupted that they 
will not accept of freedom when offered to them, seeing the 
king, on his restoration, will refuse nothing that a free par- 
liament can ask for the security of the religion, laws, and 
liberty of his people. * * 

1 It is now time to conclude, and I shall do it with this 



128 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

reflection. Civil wars are ever attended with rancour and 
ill-will, which party rage never fails to produce in the minds 
of those whom different interests, principles, or views set 
in opposition to one another. I therefore earnestly require 
it of my friends to give as little loose as possible to such 
passions ; this will prove the most effectual means to pre- 
vent the same in the enemies of our royal cause. And this 
my declaration will vindicate to all posterity the nobleness 
of my undertaking 1 , and the generosity of my intentions.' x 

1 This document was burlesqued on the spur of the occasion by Mrs Cock- 
burn s author of the beautiful song, The Flowers of the Forest, and whose 
wit, as here exemplified, may for the future check in some degree the too 
confident assertion that the Muses were exclusively Jacobite. The verses 
form a kind of parody of a song called Clout the Caldron: — 

' Have you any laws to mend ? 

Or have you any grievance ? 
I am a hero to my trade, 

And truly a most leal prince. 
Would you have war, would you have peace, 

Would you be free of taxes, 
Come chapping to my father's door, 

You need not doubt of access. 

Religion, laws, and liberty, 

Ye ken are bonnie words, sirs ; 
They shall be a' made sure to you, 

If you'll fecht wi' your swords, sirs. 
The nation's debt we soon shall pay, 

If ye' 11 support our right, boys ; 
No sooner we are brought in play, 

Than all things shall be tight, boys. 

Ye ken that by a Union base, 

Your ancient kingdom's undone, 
That a' your ladies, lords, and lairds, 

Gang up and live at London. 
Nae langer that we will allow, 

For, crack— it goes asunder — 
What took sic time and pains to do ; 

And let the warld wonder. 

I'm sure, for seven years and mair, 

Ye've heard o' sad oppression ; 
And this is all the good ye got 

By the Hanover succession. 
For absolute power and popery, 

Ye ken it's a' but nonsense : 
I here swear to secure to you 

Your liberty of conscience. 

And, for your mair encouragement, 

Ye shall be pardoned byganes ; 
Nae mair fight on the continent, 

And leave behind your dry banes. 
Then come away, and dinna stay ; 

What gars ye look sae landart ? 
I'd have ye run, and not delay, 

To join my father's standard ? ' 

Sir Walter Scott, in a manuscript note which he communicated to the author 



GATHERING AT EDINBURGH. 129 



CHAPTER XIV. 

GATHERING AT EDINBURGH. 

To wanton me, to wanton me, 

Ken ye what maist wad wanton me ? 

To see King James at Edinburgh Cross, 

Wi' fifty thousand foot and horse, 

And the usurper forced to flee ; 

Oh this is what maist wad wanton me ! 

Jacobite Song. 

The court of St James's, thoroughly alarmed at Charles's 
progress and success, were now taking measures to present 
a large force against him. About the end of September, 
the king ordered a strong body of troops, consisting of 
several battalions of foot and some squadrons of horse, to 
march directly to Scotland, under the command of Marshal 
Wade. They were appointed to assemble at Doncaster, and 
Wade set out from London on the 6th of October to assume 
the command. It was not till the 29th of October that this 
army reached Newcastle, on their way to meet the High- 
land army, by which time Charles was on the point of 
marching into England. 1 

This force being still considered too small, the king, be- 
sides using every endeavour to enlist new men, ordered 
home a considerable portion of his veteran army from 
Flanders, along with its youthful commander, William, 
Duke of Cumberland, his second son, who had already dis- 
tinguished himself at the well-fought though unsuccessful 
battle of Fontenoy. Thirteen regiments of infantry and 
two of cavalry were also in the course of being raised by 

of this history, says — ' I remember having heard repeated a parody on Prince 
Charles's proclamation, in burlesque verse, to the tune of Clout the Caldron. 
In the midst of the siege or blockade of the castle of Edinburgh, the carriage 
in which Mrs Cockburn was returning from a visit to Ravelston was stopped 
by the Highland guard at the West Port ; and as she had a copy of the parody 
about her person, she was not a little alarmed for the consequences, especially 
as the officer talked of searching for letters and correspondence with the 
Whigs in the city. Fortunately the arms on the coach were recognised as 
belonging to a gentleman favourable to the cause of the adventurer, so that 
Mrs Cockburn escaped, with the caution not to carry political squibs about 
her person in future.' 

1 Wade, on the 30th of October, issued a proclamation, addressed to such as 
had been forced by their superiors into rebellion, offering them his majesty's 
free pardon, on condition of their returning to their homes before the 12th of 
November. 

VOL. V. I 



130 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the nobility and gentry of England to oppose the insurgents ; 
and the king, the better to carry on the war, was favoured 
with a loan of £700,000, by the proprietors of two privateer 
vessels, which had recently taken upwards of that sum in 
specie from the French. The royal assent was also given, 
October 21st, to a bill for suspending the Habeas Corpus 
Act ; and many persons of importance were arrested on 
suspicion. 

To oppose forces thus leisurely collected, and in such 
quantities, Charles exerted himself, for six weeks after his 
victory, to raise the clans which had not at first declared 
themselves, and to organise his little army as well as time 
and circumstances would allow. This was the more neces- 
sary, as, in addition to the regular forces mustered by the 
government, President Forbes was exerting himself to raise 
a loyal force in the Highlands out of the following 's of the 
Laird of Grant, the Earl of Sutherland, Monro of Foulis, 
and a few other well-affected landlords, and for this purpose 
had obtained from court twenty commissions for an equal 
number of independent companies, as they were called, of 
100 men each. On the 24th of September, Charles de- 
spatched Mr Alexander Macleod of Muiravonside, a cousin 
of young Clanranald, as a messenger to the Isle of Skye, to 
assure Sir Alexander Macdonald and the Laird of Macleod, 
that, not imputing their inactivity to disaffection, he was 
ready to receive them and their powerful clans as the most 
favoured of his father's loyal subjects. From Skye, this 
messenger was commissioned to go to Castle Downie, the 
residence of Lord Lovat, and to deliver to him the same 
message. He met with no success in Skye, where Duncan 
Forbes had been exerting himself to confirm the two recu- 
sant chiefs in their loyalty. At Castle Downie he found 
Lovat still undecided as to which course he should take. 
This aged chief had been greatly rejoiced by the tidings of 
Preston. It is said that, momentarily hurried from his 
prudent course, he pronounced it a victory of unparalleled 
brilliancy, and descending to his courtyard, and casting 
his hat upon the ground, drank, in a bumper of wine, 
6 Success to the White Rose, and confusion to the White 
Horse and all its adherents ! ? — the white rose being a badge 
of the house of Stuart, and the white horse a conspicuous 
object on the armorial shield of the House of Hanover. Still 
he was too much in fear of the government, and too closely- 
watched by his neighbour President Forbes, to commit 
himself in the character of a declared partisan of the cheva- 
lier. It occurred to Lovat's subtle, but at the same time 



GATHERING AT EDINBURGH. 131 

superficial mind, that he might give the Prince the use 
of his clan, as a portion of his army, while he himself might 
keep up a fair face towards the government, and thereby 
save his person and estates from risk. He therefore caused 
the clan to be mustered by his subalterns, the chief of whom 
was Fraser of Gortuleg ; and summoning his son, a youth 
of eighteen, from college at St Andrews, forced him to as- 
sume the appearance of a rebellious young chief, determined 
to muster and lead away the clan for the service of the 
chevalier, against the will of an aged father, unable by 
personal infirmity to prevent him. 

The letters addressed by Lovat to President Forbes during 
the time when these transactions were going- on have been 
preserved and published, 1 and perhaps we have nowhere 
more faithful illustrations of that mean cunning, the natu- 
ral language of which Hogarth has so well expressed in his 
lordship's portrait. On the 7th of October, he speaks with 
indignation of the i villanous, malicious, and ridiculous re- 
ports ' that had been circulated respecting his conduct, and 
to which Forbes had alluded, assuring- the president that 
c there was nothing ever out of hell more false.' Forbes 
replied on the same day, in terms expressing full confidence 
in his continued prudence and loyalty. On the 11th, Lovat 
writes ag*ain, representing (this was an important part of 
his system) his health as extremely bad ; he could not move 
without the assistance of three or four men. He is full of 
intelligence favourable to the chevalier's object — a French 
army landed in the south of England — the Duke of Beau- 
fort, Sir Watkins William Wynne, ^nd Morgan of Tradagar, 
at the head of a native English army of 6000 men — all the 
gentry of Banff, Aberdeen, Perth, and Stirling", and many 
of the clans, flocking to the standard at Edinburgh. The 
contagion of disloyalty has reached his men, and he finds 
it morally impossible to prevent them from arming* in 
behalf of the ' mad young gentleman.' He really does not 
know how to act : he wishes he had been in any part out of 
Britain for these twelve months past. Finally, he craves 
the lord president's advice. On the night of the 16th, 
a large party of Lovat's clan, under some of his subal- 
terns, made an unsuccessful attack on Culloden House, 
in order to seize the person of the president, for which, 
it will be recollected, he had obtained a warrant from 
Prince Charles, not dictated in such unscrupulous terms 
as he had wished. Apparently, on hearing* of this attack, 

1 Culloden Papers, 4to. 



132 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

he wrote to the lord president in condoling" terms; but 
the letter has not been preserved. Of course he would 
disclaim all connexion with the attempt, though there is 
no doubt that it was of his own scheming'. In the same 
letter, as we can judge from the president's answer, he must 
have stated that his son had put himself at the head of the 
clan, and was about to conduct it to the standard of the 
chevalier. On the 20th, he renews this subject, with many 
affected complaints as to the distresses of his situation. ' This 
Prince's landing,' says he, ' was as great a surprise to me 
as it was to any man in Scotland ; but who can prevent 
accidents, or the designs of Providence ? It is certain that 
what he has done since he landed seems rather to be a 
miracle, than the effects of men's heads or hands ; and how 
far that favourable providence may follow him, or conduct 
him, God alone knows; for he seems at present in a fair and 
probable way of succeeding.'' For this, which probably was 
his genuine opinion, he adduces facts ; particularly the 
great number of his adherents in Scotland, and the succours 
expected from abroad. Nevertheless, ' I do solemnly declare 
to your lordship that nothing ever vexed my soul so much 
as the resolution of my son to go and join the Prince. * * 
This mad resolution struck him in the head as soon as he 
heard of the Prince's landing ; and after what Macleod said 
to him, and what Gortuleg said to him, and what myself 
said to him, I know by his answers to Macleod, Gortuleg, 
and me, that all the creation will not keep him from 
going to live and die with that Prince. I refer it to your 
lordship, who has a true sense of the danger of my family 
from his going out, what a load and weight of grief must 
be upon my soul to see my son, myself, and my family 
in such danger and jeopardy. But I cannot help it. I 
must submit to the will of God, and there must leave it.' 

In this letter he whiningly complains that his son, when 
he ventures to remonstrate with him, only c smiles and 
laughs :' in another of the 27th, we have the young man 
described as flying in his face 6 like a wild cat' whenever 
he but speaks of his folly. The president having, in a reply 
dated the 29th, plainly intimated that, in an ag*e of such 
suspicion, the Master of Lovat's conduct might be the ruin 
of his father and family, the old chief, on the 30th, exclaims 
loudly against the very idea of such a thing, than which, 
he says, there never could have been greater injustice among 
the Turks or Persians. ( Am I, my lord, the first man that 
has had ane undutiful son ? Or am I the first man that 
has made a good estate, and saw it destroyed in his own 



GATHERING AT EDINBURGH. 133 

time by the foolish actings of ane unnatural son, who pre- 
fers his own extravagant fancies to the solid advice of ane 
affectionate old father? I have seen instances of this in 
my own time ; hut I never heard till now that the foolish- 
ness of a son would take away the liberty and life of a 
father, that lived peaceably, that was ane honest man, and 
well inclined to the rest of mankind. But I lind the longer 
a man lives, the more wonders and extraordinary things 
he sees,' On the 6th of November he intreats the lord 
president to continue his friendship, and to represent his 
case in the most favourable light in important quarters — 
adding, with that view, a recital of how his clan had been 
infected by the general enthusiasm, how they had gone off 
to the Prince, leaving me l a contemptible old infirm fellow 
in my house, and no more notice taken of me than if I 
was a child' — and finally, how he was, after all, exerting 
himself to make up a regiment for the government, ' most. of 
them pretty fellows, though some of them is between sixty 
and seventy years of age,' (many of them, he elsewhere 
says, ' about my own age,' that is, on the borders of eighty !) 
and at whose head he was to put a set of i pretty gentle- 
men.' He was determined to live at home in peace, and, 
if he should suffer on his son's account, it would be a greater 
severity than was ever practised to any subject. ' My 
house and green,' he adds, c has been like a market-place 
for some time past ; and my son was such a fool, that he 
entertained, and does entertain, every man he thinks favours 
his part, and he is ten times [more] master of this house 
than I am ; but I have resolved from the beginning, and 
still continue firm in my resolution, let them do or say 
what they will, I will never black paper with them ; and 
as soon as I am able to travel out of this house, I'll stay no 
longer in it, for I am downright killed with vexation of 
heart and spirit, to see my health much hurt, my family 
in danger, and any money and rent I have foolishly spent 
and squandered away. There is no help for it; I must 
submit to Divine Providence.' Then, after a few matters 
of no importance, he tells how the Earl of Cromarty and 
Lord Macleod had come to Beaufort, on their way to join 
the Prince. l So your lordship sees that the wise ana worldly 
people of the Mackenzies are infected ; so that it's no wonder 
that the Frasers, who never were thought worldly or wise, 
should be infected with a contagion, though never so foolish 
or dangerous.' 

It is very remarkable, amidst all these proofs of refined 
cunning, to observe the want of the simplest wisdom in 



134 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Lovat. From the magnificent accounts he gives of the 
Prince's circumstances and prospects, he appears to have 
been among the most credulous and easily deceived men 
of his day. 

The Master of Lovat — afterwards the well-known General 
Fraser of the British army, and killed in high command 
in the American war of independence — led out the Frasers, 
it has always been said, with great reluctance, but not in 
time to join the army before its march into England. 

Although the president w T as g-enerally successful in his 
negotiations, he could not prevent a considerable number 
of the clans from marching to join the Prince's standard. 
As he himself declares in one of his letters, rebels stalked 
out from families for whose loyalty he could have previously 
staked his life; and even his own nephew, to his great 
astonishment and mortification, one day assumed the white 
cockade, and joined the insurgents. It would, indeed, 
appear that he was in some cases, besides that of Lovat, 
egregiously deceived ; and that, by a policy not less fine- 
spun than his own, many whom he considered his friends 
had only assured him of their loyalty in order to lull him 
into security, and that they might be able to circumvent 
him in their turn. Under these circumstances, it is not 
surprising that the Independent Companies did not at first 
muster very quickly. The Earl of Loudoun came to Inver- 
ness to take the command on the 11th of October; but 
only two companies had been gathered at the end of that 
month, and only four more during the first half of the 
next. 

Edinburgh was, in the meantime, experiencing some of 
the miseries of civil war. For a few days after the battle 
of Preston, the communication between the city and castle 
continued open. The Highlanders kept guard at the Weigh 
House, an old building situated in the centre of the street 
leading to the castle, about four hundred yards from the 
fortress itself; and they at first allowed all kinds of pro- 
visions to pass, particularly for the use of the officers. But 
the garrison soon beginning to annoy them with cohorns 
and cannon, orders were issued, on the 29th of September, 
that no person should be permitted to pass. General Guest 
then sent a letter to the city, threatening to use his cannon 
against the stations of the Highland guards, unless they 
permitted a free communication. As that involved the 
safety of the town to a great extent, the inhabitants — for 
there were no magistrates — implored a respite for a single 
night, which was granted. They then waited upon Prince 



GATHERING AT EDINBURGH. 135 

Charles, and showed him General Guest's letter. He im- 
mediately gave them an answer in writing", that they might 
show it to the governor, expressing his surprise at the bar- 
barity of the officer who threatened to bring distress upon 
the citizens for not doing what was out of their power, and 
at the extravagance which demanded his renunciation of 
all the advantages he possessed by the fortune of war. He 
concluded by threatening to retaliate upon the garrison, 
in reprisals upon their estates, and also upon those of c all 
known abettors of the German government. 7 Upon pre- 
senting this letter to General Guest, and making earnest 
intreaty for a further respite, the citizens obtained a pro- 
mise that no shots should be fired till his majesty's plea- 
sure should be known upon the subject, providing that the 
besiegers should, during that time, offer no annoyance to 
the garrison. 

This condition was broken next day by the levity of the 
Highlanders, who fired off their pieces, to frighten some 
people who were carrying provisions up the Castle Hill. 
The governor then considered himself justified in firing* 
upon the guard. Charles, on learning what had taken 
place, published a proclamation, prohibiting all intercourse 
with the castle, upon pain of death, and gave orders to 
strengthen the blockade, by posting additional guards at 
several places. The garrison retaliated for this measure, 
by firing at all the Highlanders they could see. On the 
4th of October they commenced a bombardment of the city. 
When it grew dark, the cannonading ceased, and a party 
sallying out, threw up a trench across the Castle Hill, where 
they planted cannon, and fired balls and small-shot down 
the street. They also set fire to one or two deserted houses 
at the head of the street, and on the people running* to ex- 
tinguish the flames, destroyed some innocent lives. The 
people, then greatly alarmed, began to busy themselves in 
transporting their aged and infirm friends to the country, 
along with their most valuable effects ; and the streets, on 
which the bullets were every moment descending, were soon 
as completely deserted by day as they usually were by 
night. In running down to Leith for shelter, a great party 
met the inhabitants of that town hurrying for the same 
purpose towards Edinburgh, because a British ship of war, 
lying off in the roads, and whose intercourse with the shore 
had been cut off by the Highlanders, was firing into their 
streets with the same fatal effect. All was perplexity and 
dismay ; and the unhappy citizens stood still, wringing 
their hands, and execrating the cruel necessities of war. 



136 HISTORY OF THE REEELLION OF 1745-6. 

The distress which the blockade of the castle had brought 
upon the city was now found to be so unfavourable 
to Charles's cause, that he was obliged, for the sake of 
that cause, to take it off. He did so by proclamation on 
the evening of the day succeeding its commencement. 
The cannonade then ceased on the part of the castle, into 
which provisions were thenceforth conveyed without moles- 
tation. 

The prisoners taken at Gladsmuir had meanwhile been 
sent to distant parts of the country — the officers to Perth, 
and the private men to Logierait in Athole. Some ser- 
geants, corporals, and private men were prevailed upon to 
enlist in the victorious army ; but most of them afterwards 
deserted. It will be found that most of the officers, who, 
besides their parole, had also taken an oath not to serve 
against the house of Stuart for a twelvemonth, held as little 
faith with their captors. The Prince not only freed those 
private soldiers who had been severely wounded (about 
seventy in number), but, with his usual humanity, gave 
them money to bear them to their homes. Many travelled 
into England as beggars, showing their dreadful gashes 
wherever they went ; by which means the curiosity of the 
English populace was at once gratified, and their minds 
impressed with no small terror for the claymore. 

The accessions of force which Prince Charles received at 
Edinburgh were not inconsiderable. The first that joined 
him was Lord Ogilvie, eldest son of the Earl of Airlie, who 
arrived in town on the 3d of October with a regiment of 600 
men, most of whom were of his own name, and from the 
county of Forfar. Next day came Gordon of Glenbucket, 
with 400 men from the head of Aberdeenshire, forming a 
regiment, of which he and his kinsmen were the officers. 
Lord Pitsligo arrived on the 9th, with a great body of 
gentlemen from the counties of Aberdeen and Banff, at- 
tended by their servants, all well armed and mounted ; as 
also a small body of infantry. On the 16th, Lord Lewis 
Gordon, brother of the Duke of Gordon, arrived, and kissed 
the chevalier's hand. It was understood that he on this 
occasion represented his brother, who was not inclined to 
appear in person. 1 These valuable recruits were from the 

1 Amongst many who declared for the chevalier a cautious policy was 
adopted. In cases where the head of a family and proprietor of an estate 
went out, he would previously make over his property to his eldest son, who 
remained at home in possession. When the father, on the contrary, was 
averse to active partisanship, a son went out, along with all the forces, both in 
the way of men and money, which the house could contribute, assured that, 
although the youth should fall or be attainted, he had still brothers to inherit 



GATHERING AT EDINBURGH. 137 

northern part of the Lowlands of Scotland, where non- 
jurancy might he said to have its principal citadel, and 
where the Episcopal and Roman Catholic forms of worship 
still nourish. Various other gentlemen from the north, 
along* with some inferior septs of Highland families, joined 
the army before the end of October, when the whole amount 
was somewhat less than 6000. 

The chevalier, notwithstanding the success of Preston, 
found few adherents in Edinburgh, or in any part of the 
country south of the Forth. Even when he was in com- 
plete possession of the city, only about three hundred of the 
inhabitants, and those not the most respectable, did him the 
honour of assuming the white cockade. 1 In fact his enter- 
prise was a thing quite foreign to the feelings and ordinary 
pursuits of the Lowland population. It was also opposed 
by the stern Presbyterian principle of dislike to his family, 
originating in the religious persecutions to which his ances- 
tors had subjected a portion of the people of Scotland. It is 
true that the most rigid sect of Presbyterians had, since the 
revolution, expressed a strong desire to coalesce with the 
Jacobites, with the hope, in case the house of Stuart were 
restored, to obtain what they called a covenanted king* ; 
and that 1000 of this sect had assembled in Dumfriesshire, 
at the first intelligence of the insurrection, bearing arms 
and colours, and supposed to contemplate a junction with 
the chevalier. But these religionists were now almost as 
violently distinct from the Established Church of Scotland 
as ever they had been from those of England and Rome, 
and had long ceased to play a prominent part in the national 
disputes. The established clergy, and the greater part of 
their congregations, were averse to Charles upon considera- 
tions perfectly moderate, but at the same time not easy to 
be shaken. 

Some instances have been reported which show the effi- 
cacy of these sentiments against Charles's cause, and at the 

the patrimonial property for the behoof of the family.* Some of the Highland 
gentlemen themselves saw fit to adopt this policy. The Macdonalds of Clan- 
ranald, and also those of Glengarry, were led out by the sons of their respective 
chiefs. At a subsequent period of the campaign, the wife of the chief of the 
Mackintoshes raised the clan in behalf of Charles, while Mackintosh himself 
served as an officer in the militia raised for the defence of government. 
1 Edinburgh Packet Opened, 1745. 8vo.— P. 12. 

* On Mr Beatoun of Kilconquhar expostulating with the Earl of Kellie 
about the absurdity of his joining the chevalier, seeing that he had nofolloic- 
ing, his lordship lightly said, ■ Hout man, although I get a bullet through my 
wanie, is there no Pittenweem aye to the fore ? '—meaning his eldest son, so 
entitled. This eldest son was afterwards the well-known musical Earl of 
Kellie. — Information by a Scottish bishop. 



138 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

same time prove the disinclination to war which an age of 
domestic peace and increasing- commerce had produced in 
the Lowlands. When the Earl of Kilmarnock exerted him- 
self in 1715 for the defence of government, he found no 
difficulty in raising a large regiment among his tenants 
and dependents, all of whom were at once willing to attend 
their baronial master, and hearty in the cause for which he 
desired their services ; but on the son of that earl coming to 
Kilmarnock in 1745, and requesting the inhabitants to arm 
themselves in behalf of the house of Stuart, there was a very 
different result. The people were acquiring wealth by the 
manufacture of carpets and nightcaps, and had got different 
lights regarding feudal servitude, which, added to their 
prejudices against the pope and the pretender, caused them 
fairly to rebel against their baronial superior. His lord- 
ship assembled them in the Town Hall, and tried them first 
with intreaties, and then with threats; but not one man 
would consent to join his standard. He then confined his 
demands to their arms; for, weavers as they were, they 
still retained the old muskets and rusty swords of their 
covenanting ancestors, and occasionally displayed them at 
bloodless wappinshaws. But this requisition they were 
equally prepared to resist ; and one of them even told his 
lordship, tnat 'if they presented him with their guns, it 
would be loith the muzzle till him! n The Earl of Kilmar- 
nock, therefore, brought none but himself and his body 
servants to the Prince's army. 

The Earl of Kellie was equally unsuccessful in his attempt 
to raise his dependents. This eccentric nobleman is described 
in the Mercury as going over to Fife, in order to raise a 
regiment for the Prince's service upon his estates in that 
well-affected district. He never got above three men — him- 
self as colonel, an old Fife laird for lieutenant-colonel, and a 
serving-man, who had to represent all the rest of the troop 
by his own single person ! 2 

" Several other Lowland gentlemen joined the Prince at 
this time — amongst the rest William Hamilton of Bangour, 
an amiable man and pleasing poet, who became the laureate 
of the enterprise, and seems at one time to have designed 
being its historian. Another of some note was the Honour- 
able Arthur Elphingstone of Balmerino, who had been an 

1 Tradition at Kilmarnock. 

2 A cautious rustic was asked what side he was going to take in these 
troubles. * For my part,' said he, * I am clear for being on the same side 
wi' the hangman. I'll stay till I see what side he's to take, and then I'll 
decide.' 



GATHERING AT EDINBURGH. 139 

officer in Queen Anne's army, and who, in the ensuing" 
January, while engaged in the enterprise, succeeded to his 
family title of Lord Balmerino. c I might easily/ said this 
brave veteran in his last speech, i have excused myself tak- 
ing* arms on account of my age ; but I never could have had 
peace of conscience if I had stayed at home, when that brave 
Prince was exposing himself to all manner of dangers and 
fatigue both night and day.' An adherent of still greater 
importance, and one whose becoming so occasioned more 
surprise, was Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees and Coltness, 
afterwards distinguished as the author of the first British 
work of importance on political economy, and unquestion- 
ably a man of considerable talents. Descended of a Whig 
family, Sir James had, nevertheless, allowed himself, in the 
course of his travels, to form an intimacy with the Stuart 
princes and some of their principal adherents. He had 
more lately been piqued at the treatment he had received at 
an election from one of the officers of the government. He 
was disposed to join the enterprise of the Prince, but wished 
that, in doing so, he should not appear quite a free agent. 
His sister's husband, the Earl of Buchan, a good man, of 
moderate understanding, 1 was brought by him to the same 
views, and they agreed with Lady Steuart's brother, Lord 
Elcho, that they should be seized in a public place, and 
carried to Holyroodhouse, as if against their will. Walk- 
ing next day at the Cross of Edinburgh, Sir James and the 
earl were seized accordingly, and conducted to the palace. 
There a message was sent from an anteroom to the chevalier, 
mentioning their presence. The Prince, who in the mean- 
while had heard of the manner of their visit, returned for 
answer, that if the Earl of Buchan and Sir James Steuart 
came as willing partisans to befriend his cause, he should 
be proud and happy to see them, but not otherwise. This 
bluntness, though honourable to the Prince's candour, dis- 
pleased Buchan, whose resolution, perhaps, had already 
begun to give way. He therefore made a low bow to the 
officer, and said, l Please inform his royal highness that I 
have the honour to be his most obedient humble servant;' 
after which he instantly left the palace. Sir James, too 
much offended with the government to retrace his steps, 
remained to see the Prince upon the terms prescribed. 2 
When the old chevalier was first informed of Charles's 

1 Though the father of two uncommonly clever men— the Honourahle Henry 
Erskine, and Lord Erskine, chancellor of England. 

2 The family tradition, communicated hy the late Sir Henry Steuart of 
AUanton. 



140 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

departure for Scotland, he, though disapproving of the 
enterprise, did all he could to favour its success. Besides 
remitting 200,000 francs to O'Brien, his chief agent at 
Paris, to pay off the debts contracted by the Prince, he 
deposited another sum of 50,000 francs in the hands of 
Waters, junior, his banker there, to be at O'Brien's disposal 
for the service of the enterprise, and soon after sent 80,000 
Roman crowns for the same purpose, promising soon to 
follow the same up with a still further remittance of 28,000 
crowns, which he said would exhaust his treasury. 1 He 
likewise wrote a letter (August 5, new style — July 24, old 
style) to the King of France, pressingly urging him to 
second the Prince's attempt by an efficient force. 2 He at 
the same time addressed the Cardinal Tencin, the Marechal 
de Noailles, and indeed the whole of the French ministers, 
to the same effect. Immediately after his taking' possession 
of Edinburgh, the Prince despatched Mr Kelly to France, 
to give an account of his marvellous success, and urge it as 
a reason for the government sending him the much-desired 
aid. 3 He now sent Sir James Steuart, in the more formal 
character of an ambassador, to enforce the arguments of 
Kelly. Meanwhile the young Due de Bouillon, with whom 
Charles had formed a romantic friendship, was exerting all 
his eloquence with the king and ministers to the same 
effect. The various means taken to obtain French aid were 
in some degree successful. Early in October several ships 
from France arrived at Montrose, Stonehaven, and other 
ports in the north with arms and ammunition. The first 
of these brought £5000 in money, and 2500 stand of arms, 
besides a Monsieur de Boyer, styled Marquis D'Eguilles, 
who, on the 10th, was received with studious parade at 
Holyroodhouse as the French ambassador. It was given 
out that this gentleman brought letters from Louis XV., pro- 
mising that an armament should be immediately despatched 
to the Prince's assistance, under the conduct of his brother, 
the Duke of York. Another vessel, besides some money 
and arms, brought a few French-Irish officers. A third 
landed part of a company of artillerymen, with six field- 
pieces. A difficulty was experienced in getting these stores 
transported to Edinburgh, as the bridge of Stirling was 
under command of the castle, and the Firth of Forth was 

1 Stuart Papers, appendix to Browne's History. 

2 Stuart Papers, Browne's History. 

3 Kelly went by Campvere, in Holland, where he was near being arrested 
by the Conservator of Scots Privileges, an agent kept by the Scottish mer- 
chants at that port. 



GATHERING AT EDINBURGH. 141 

swept by British cruisers. The expedient adopted was to 
erect a battery of four or five guns at Higgins' Nook, near 
Airth, and a similar one on the other side of the Forth, to 
guard that narrow passage from the boats of the cruisers. 
The stores were brought over by this way in a hundred and 
eighty-five carts, under the conduct of a guard, and arrived 
at Dalkeith just in time to accompany the army on its 
southward march. 

The account given by Maxwell of Kirkconnel presents a 
favourable view of the character and conduct of the Prince, 
as both appeared during his residence in Edinburgh. One 
less flattering has been given by Lord Elcho, who likewise 
left a memoir respecting the insurrection. Lord Elcho's 
account of the chevalier's council is peculiarly valuable, 
because we nowhere else obtain the same light ; but some 
allowance must be made for the bitter personal feeling 
under which he evidently writes. ' The Prince, 7 says he, 
* formed a council, which met regularly every morning in 
his drawing-room. The gentlemen whom he called to it 
were the Duke of Perth, Lord Lewis Gordon, Lord George 
Murray, Lord Elcho, Lord Ogilvie, Lord Pitsligo, Lord 
Nairn, Locheil, Keppoch, Clanranald, Glencoe, Lochgarry, 
Ardshiel, Sir Thomas Sheridan, Colonel O'Sullivan, Glen- 
bucket, and Secretary Murray. The Prince, in this council, 
used always first to declare what he himself was for, and 
then he asked everybody's opinion in his turn. There 
was one-third of the council whose principles were, that 
kings and princes can never either act or think wrong ; so, 
in consequence, they always confirmed what the Prince 
said. The other two-thirds, who thought that kings and 
princes thought sometimes like other men, and were not 
altogether infallible, and that this Prince was no more so 
than others, begged leave to differ from him, when they 
could give sufficient reasons for their difference of opinion. 
This very often was no difficult matter to do ; for as the 
Prince and his old governor, Sir Thomas Sheridan, w r ere 
altogether ignorant of the ways and customs of Great Bri- 
tain, and both much for the doctrine of absolute monarchy, 
they would very often, had they not been prevented, have 
fallen into blunders which might have hurt the cause. 
The Prince could not bear to hear anybody differ in senti- 
ment from him, and took a dislike to everybody that did ; 
for he had a notion of commanding the army as any gene- 
ral does a body of mercenaries, and so let them know only 
w r hat he pleased, and expected them to obey without inquir- 
ing further about the matter. This might have done better 



142 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

had his favourites been people of the country ; but as they 
were Irish, and had nothing to risk, the people of fashion, 
that had their all at stake, and consequently ought to be 
supposed likely to give the best advice of which they were 
capable, thought they had a title to know and be consulted 
in what was good for the cause ; and if it had not been 
for their insisting strongly upon it, the Prince, when he 
found that his sentiments were not always approved of, 
would have abolished this council long ere he did. 

i There was a very good paper sent one day by a gentle- 
man in Edinburgh, to be perused by his council. The 
Prince, when he heard it read, said that it was below his 
dignity to enter into such a reasoning with subjects, and 
ordered the paper to be laid aside. The paper was after- 
wards printed, under the title of " The Prince's Declaration 
to the People of England," and is esteemed the best mani- 
festo published in those times, for those that were printed at 
Rome and Paris were reckoned not well calculated for the 
present age. 

( The Prince created a committee for providing the army 
with forage. It was composed of Lord Elcho, president ; 
Graham of Duntroon, whom they called Lord Dundee ; Sir 
William Gordon of Park ; Hunter of Burnside ; Haldane 
of Lanark, and his son ; Mr Smith ; and Mr Hamilton. 
They issued out orders, in the Prince's n?ane, to all the 
gentlemen's houses who had employments under the govern- 
ment to send in certain quantities of hay, straw, and corn 
upon such a day, under pain of military execution if not com- 
plied with ; but their orders were very punctually obeyed. 

c There were courts-martial sat every day for the discip- 
line of the army, and some delinquents were punished with 
death. 7 * 

1 During the stay of the chevalier in Edinburgh, the newspapers served as 
organs of intelligence in his favour, and were the chief vehicles of his pro- 
clamations. While the Courant submitted to this necessity with the reluc- 
tance which might have been expected from its principles, the Mercury not 
only complied with promptitude, but rejoiced in the opportunity thus afforded 
of indulging its natural propensities without constraint. Ruddiman himself 
had retired to the country, after having only once, as he himself informs 
us (in the preface to his Dissertation concerning the Competition between 
Bruce and Baliol), seen his Prince for two minutes. At the age of seventy- 
one, he could not promote by any active measures the cause of his heart. 
During his absence, however, the paper was conducted with sufficient "vigour 
by his partner, James Grant, a young man of more violent political preju- 
dices than himself, and who eventually took arms in behalf of the chevalier. 
Grant did all that the command of such a tool put into his power to further 
the views of the Highland army. Making allowance for the partiality dis- 
played in his paragraphs, many of them contain curious memorabilia of the 
time. 

Friday, September 27.—' Several sergeants and corporals, with a vast many 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 143 

CHAPTER XV. 

INVASION OF ENGLAND. 

Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu' sprush, 
We'll over the border and gie them a brush ; 
There's somebody there we'll teach better behaviour— 
Hey, brave Johnnie lad, cock up your beaver. 

Old Song. 

The closing* days of October saw Charles in possession of 
an army of between 5000 and 6000 men ; with a small park 

private men, have entered into the Prince's service ; so that, with the volun- 
teers who come in, the clerks of the office have not leisure to eat, drink, or 
sleep, by enlisting. These sergeants and volunteers are now beating for 
volunteers to serve Prince Charles. 

* The poor soldiers who were wounded at the late battle daily die of their 
wounds, both in town and country ; and such of them as have been able to 
crawl to town, are cheerfully succoured by the inhabitants. 

* His Royal Highness, whose robust and hardy constitution supports his 
natural inclination to fatigue and hardships, lay last night in a soldier's tent 
at the camp, preferring that tent to the royal palace of Holyroodhouse.' 

Monday, September 30.—' There is now forming, and pretty well advanced, 
a body of horse life-guards for his Royal Highness the Prince, commanded 
by the Right Honourable the Lord Elcho. Their uniform is blue, trimmed 
with red, and laced waistcoats ; they are to consist of four squadrons of 
gentlemen of character. 

' The Prince's tent has been erected in the camp near Duddingstone, where 
his Royal Highness lies every night wrapped up in his Highland plaid. He 
takes the utmost pleasure in reviewing his people, and is highly beloved by 
them. There was yesterday a general review. 

* Several persons of distinction, and a vast number of private gentlemen, 
have joined the Prince's army since our last. 

1 A gentleman, a citizen of London, arrived yesterday in the Prince's 
camp, and offered himself a volunteer. 

' Ever since the castle has been blocked up somewhat strictly on the side of 
this city, the friends of the garrison have the night-long conveyed up by ropes 
to them whatever necessaries they want, by the corner of the West Port 
side.' 

Wednesday, October 2. — ' Among the observables of this time, one is, that 
there is not in the city jail one single prisoner for crime, debt, or otherwise. 
The like, perhaps, never could have been said before.' 

Some of the subsequent publications overflow with flattering accounts of 
the rising in the north, and intimate the highest hopes regarding the issue of 
the expedition. The clans are described as descending in thousands from 
their fastnesses, and every party which really came to the camp is greatly 
exaggerated. Cheerful accounts are also given of the readiness with which 
the contributions of the towns, and rents of the forfeited estates, are paid to 
the Prince. Altogether, from the magnificence of the reports which the 
Mercury puts into circulation, it is scarcely to be wondered at that so many 
sober men saw fit to embark in the expedition. I should suppose that Lord 
Lovat must have been a constant reader of the Mercury. 

Wednesday, October 16.—' On Monday last, Monseigneur de Boyer, a French 
person of quality, arrived at the palace of Holyroodhouse with despatches 



144 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

of artillery, and abundance of arms and ammunition, while 
still further reinforcements were preparing* for him in the 
north, though not likely to join immediately. At the same 
time large bodies of troops were collecting against him in 
England, and even in the north of Scotland. In such cir- 
cumstances, it would have been difficult for the most prudent 
head to say what step ought to be taken. Charles, who had 
had no maxim in the business but that the nearer he could 
advance to the seat of government the better, determined 
for the most vigorous course, and surprised his council one 
day by the announcement that he designed to march for 
Newcastle, and give battle to Marshal Wade, who, he was 
convinced, would fly before him. The proposal was com- 
bated by the more cautious of his friends, but ultimately 
agreed to. 

Orders were now therefore given to call in all the various 
parties which had been posted in different parts of the coun- 
try, and the chevalier held a final review of his whole force 

from the court of Versailles. He has brought with him a great quantity of 
arms, ammunition, money, &c. 

* Yesternight, the Right Honourable Lord Lewis Gordon, third son of the 
deceased Alexander, Duke of Gordon, came and kissed the Prince's hand, 
and joined his Royal Highness's standard. His lordship was some time an 
officer in the navy. The court, which was very numerous and splendid, 
seemed in great joy on this occasion, as several gentlemen not only of the 
name of Gordon, but many others in the shires of Aberdeen, Banff, and 
Murray, who had declined joining the Prince's standard, unless some one or 
other of the sons of the illustrious house of Gordon was to head them, will 
now readily come up and join the army.' 

Monday, October 21. — ' Friday last, at one afternoon, a woman was observed 
by the sentinels on duty at the park of artillery near Holyroodhouse carry- 
ing, as they believed, dinner to some of the guard ; under which colour she 
actually got past the outer sentinels, and even made an attempt to get by the 
inner sentinels ; but, being pushed back, she stept to the south-east wall of 
the park, and actually got upon it, though the sentinels called out and fired 
upon her. She was immediately apprehended, and there were found upon her 
several combustible affairs. The people, asking what business she had within 
the artillery ground, where so much powder was, with her straw, fagots, &c. 
she only answered that she believed it was a churchyard, and pretended to 
be delirious. It is assured that two suspicious-looking fellows were at the 
same time seen stepping over the easter wall of the park, but that they un- 
happily escaped by the surprise everybody was in. 5 

Monday, October 28.—' Saturday last, his Royal Highness the Prince reviewed 
the Macdonells of Glengarry at Musselburgh ; they made a most noble appear- 
ance.' 

Besides innumerable paragraphs of local news, calculated more or less to 
favour the chevalier's enterprise, Grant inserted in his paper a detailed 
account, compiled from the records of parliament, of the massacre of Glencoe ; 
also a life of Viscount Dundee, and some letters by the Duke of Berwick, 
lauding the conduct of Prince Charles at the siege of Gaeta— the whole tend- 
ing to throw infamy upon the Whigs, and lustre on the Cavaliers. It is 
worthy of remark, that, after the accession of several Lowland gentlemen, • 
the position of the insurgent army is always termed the Scots Camp, pro- 
bably to give it a more national and respectable appearance in print. 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 145 

upon the beach betwixt Leith and Musselburgh, 1 now 
known by the name of Portobello Sands. 

During- the latter half of October the army had not lain 
at Duddingstone, but in more comfortable lodgings within 
and around the city. On the 26th, the main body left Edin- 
burgh, and pitched a camp a little to the west of Inveresk 
church, where they had a battery pointing to the south-west. 
At a still later period of the month they removed to 
a strong situation above Dalkeith, having' that town on 
their left, the South Esk in front, the North Esk in rear, 
and an opening on the right towards Polton. 2 

At six o'clock on the evening of Thursday the 31st of 
October, Prince Charles finally left the palace and capital 
of his paternal kingdom, and, accompanied by his life- 
guards, rode to Pinkie House. Having slept there that 
night, he rode next day at noon to Dalkeith, where he gave 
orders for the march of his army. In order to deceive 
Marshal Wade as to the point in which he designed to in- 
vade England, he had previously sent orders for quarters to 
all the towns upon the road to Berwick, and despatched 
little detachments of his men in various other directions. 
His actual resolution was to enter England by the western 
border, at once with the view of eluding the army at New- 
castle, and that he might gather the troops which he ex- 
pected to come to his standard in Lancashire and Wales, 
which were unusually well- affected. He now also ap- 
pointed his principal officers — the Duke of Perth and Lord 
George Murray to be lieutenant-generals, Lord Elcho 
colonel of the life-guards, the Earl of Kilmarnock colonel 
of the hussars, and Lord Pitsligo colonel of the Angus 
horse. 

The army was at this time in the best possible condition, 
and provided with all the conveniences which could attend 
a deliberate campaign. The men were fresh, by their long 
rest at Edinburgh, well clothed and well appointed ; they 
carried with them provisions for four days : and their bag- 
gage was promptly transported, by about 150 wains, and as 
many sumpter-horses, 3 carrying large baskets across their 
backs. 

At the commencement of this singular march, the insur- 
gents amounted in g*ross numbers to 6000, 500 of whom 
were cavalry, and 3000 Highlanders. Thirteen regiments, 
many of them very small, were composed of the Highland 

• ! Boyse's History, 95. 2 Merchant's Hist. Reb. p. 127. 

3 They had pressed 800 horses into their service out of the county of Mid- 
Lothian alone. 

VOL. V. J 



146 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

clans ; five regiments, generally more numerous, of Low- 
landers ; and besides the two troops of horse-guards, who 
wore a uniform, and were commanded by Lords Elcho 
and Balmerino, there were bodies of horse under the orders 
of Kilmarnock and Pitsligo, the first coarsely dressed and 
indifferently armed, and the last clothed in the ordinary 
fashion of country gentlemen, each armed with such 
weapons as he pleased to carry, or could most readily com- 
mand. A small body of the lighter horse was selected to 
scour the country for intelligence. 1 

The Highland regiments were commanded by their chiefs, 
and generally officered by the kinsmen of that dignitary, 
according as they were near of kin. Each regiment had 
two captains, two lieutenants, and two ensigns. The front 
rank of the regiments was filled by men of good birth, who 
in the Highlands, however poor in fortune, are styled 
gentlemen, and who had for pay one shilling a-day, while 
that of the ordinary men was only sixpence. The pay of 
the captains was half-a-crown, of the lieutenants two shil- 
lings, of the ensigns one shilling* and sixpence. Each of the 
gentlemen of the front rank was completely armed, in the 
fashion of the Highlanders, with a musket, a broadsword, a 

1 The following list will convey a more distinct view of the Highland army, 
as constituted at this interesting period. It is from the life of the Duke of 
Cumberland. 8vo. London, 1767. 

CLAN REGIMENTS, AND THEIR COMMANDERS. 

Locheil— Cameron of Locheil, . . . 700 

Appin — Stuart of Ardshiel , . „ . 200 

v Clanranald — Macdonald [younger] of Clanranald, . 300 

Keppoch — Macdonald of Keppoch, . . . 200 

Kinlochmoidart— Macdonald of Kinlochmoidart, . 100 

Glencoe — Macdonald of Glencoe, . . .120 

Macinnon— Macinnon of Macinnon, . . 120 

Macpherson — Macpherson of Cluny, . . . 120 

Glengarry— Macdonell of Glengarry, . . 300 

Glenbucket— Gordon of Glenbucket, . . . 300 

Maclachlan— Maclachlan of that ilk, . . 200 

Struan — Robertson of Struan, . . . . 200 

Glenmorriston — Grant of Glenmorriston, . . 100 



LOWLAND REGIMENTS. 

Athole— Lord George Murray, . . . 600 

Ogilvie— Lord Ogil vie, Angus men, . . 900 

Perth— Duke of Perth, . . . .700 

Nairn— Lord Nairn, . ... 200 

Edinburgh— Roy Stuart, . . . .450 

HORSE. 

Lord Elcho and Lord Balmerino, . . . 120 

Lord Pitsligo, . . . . .80 

Earl of Kilmarnock, . . . .60 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 147 

pair of pistols, a dirk at the belt, to which were also attached 
a knife and fork ; the left arm sustained a round target, 
made of wood and leather, and studded with nails ; and some 
who chose to be armed with extraordinary care, besides 
the dagger at the belt, carried a smaller one stuck into the 
garter of the right leg, which they could use in certain 
situations, when the other was beyond their reach. The 
undistinguished warriors of the rear ranks were in general 
armed in a much inferior manner, many of them wanting 
targets. 

On the evening of Friday the 1st of November, a con- 
siderable portion of the army, under the command of Lord 
George Murray, took the road for Peebles, intending to pro- 
ceed to Carlisle by Moffat. The remainder left Dalkeith on 
the 3d, the Prince walking at their head, with his target 
over his shoulder. He had previously lodged two nights in 
the palace of the Duke of Buccleuch. This party took a 
route more directly south, affecting 1 a design of meeting and 
fighting" Marshal Wade at Newcastle. On passing this 
morning by Prestonhall gate, the Prince found breakfast 
prepared for him there by order of the Duchess of Gordon, 
the lady of the neighbouring mansion ; for which act of 
hospitality her Grace lost a pension of £1000, which the 
government had bestowed upon her in consideration of her 
bringing up her family in the Protestant religion. 1 In like 
manner, as he passed Fala Dams, the ladies of Whi thorough, 
sisters of his valuable adherent Robert Anderson, gave him 
and his immediate attendants a refection in the open air ; 
after which, in compliance with their request for a keep- 
sake, he cut for them a piece of velvet from the hilt of his 
sword. Passing over Soutra Hill, he concluded the first 
day's march at Lauder, where he took up his quarters in 
Thirlstane Castle, the seat of the Earl of Lauderdale. Next 
day, on account of a false report that there was a strong" 
body of dragoons advancing in this direction to meet him, 
he fell back upon Channelkirk, in order to bring up the 
rear of his troops, who had lingered there during the night. 
He marched that day (the 4th) to Kelso, walking all the 
way on foot, in order to encourage the men. A third party 
assumed a middle course, by Galashiels, Selkirk, Hawick, 
and Mosspaul. 

The western division, which had charge of the cannon 
and most of the baggage, arrived at Peebles on the evening 
of Saturday the 2d of November. The sun was setting as 

1 Tradition. 



148 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the first lines devolved from the hills which environ the 
place on every side, and, throwing back a thousand threat- 
ening" glances from the arms of the moving band, caused 
alarm among the peaceful townsmen, who had only heard 
enough about the insurrection and its agents to make them 
fear the worst from such a visit. Contrary to expectation, 
the mountaineers neither attempted to cut the throats nor 
to violate the property of the inhabitants. They let it be 
known, wherever they went, that they required certain acts 
of obedience on the part of the people ; and that, if these 
were not willingly rendered, they had the will, as they pos- 
sessed the power, of using force. The leader demanded 
payment of the cess, on pain of military execution ; and 
little parties, calling upon various householders within and 
without the town, requested such supplies of provisions as 
could be properly spared, with the alternative of having 
their houses given up to plunder. But scarcely any in- 
civility was ever shown in the outset. 1 

This division of the insurgents, after spending a day or 
two at Peebles, went up Tweedsmuir to Moffat, and then, 
directing their route down Annandale, entered England 
near Longtown. 

Charles remained at Kelso from the Monday when he 
arrived till Wednesday, preserving the further direction of 
his march a secret. In order the better to perplex the army 
which awaited him at Newcastle, he sent orders to Wooler, 
a town upon the road to that city, commanding the pre- 
paration of quarters for his whole army. On Wednesday 
morning, however, he suddenly gave out orders for a march 
towards the opposite extremity of the Border. 

During his brief residence at Kelso, he sent a party of 
about thirty men down the Tweed, to the place, not far dis- 
tant, where that river becomes the boundary of the two 
kingdoms, with orders there to cross the water, and pro- 
claim his father upon English ground. The party, after 
doing so, immediately returned to Kelso. 

The Prince lodged this night in Jedburgh, whence he set 
out early .next morning, 2 and, crossing the high grounds to 

1 Tradition at Peebles. 

2 An old man who died lately at Jedburgh, remembered having witnessed 
the departure of the insurgents from his native town. After the Prince had 
crossed the bridge, and was clear of the town, he rode back to see that none of 
his men had remained behind ; and on ascertaining that fact, gallopped after 
the column, which he overtook at a little distance from the town. 

When the author was at Jedburgh, in November 1826, he saw an ancient 
lady who had been seven years of age when the Highlanders passed her na- 
tive town, and who distinctly remembered all the circumstances of the me- 
morable pageant. According to her report, they had a great number of horses, 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 149 

the south-west, led his men up Rule water, famed of old 
for its hardy warriors, and over the Knot o' the Gate into 
Liddisdale, equally noted in former times for its preda- 
tory bands, as in more recent times for its primitive 
yeomen and romantic minstrelsy. After a march of at 
least twenty-five miles, he slept that night at Haggiehaugh, 
upon Liddel water, his men lodging upon the ground, or in 
the houses, barns, and byres of the neighbouring peasantry. 
Before going to rest, he purchased a small flock of sheep for 
provisions to his men, and had a person sent for to kill and 
dress them. Charles Scott, a neighbouring farmer, more 
commonly called, in the fashion of that country, Charlie o 1 
Kirnton, was the man employed for this purpose. He was 
up all night killing sheep, and the Prince next morning 
gave him half a guinea for his trouble. Two Highlanders, 
who had observed Charlie receive this guerdon, followed 
him as he was going home, and clapping their pistols to 
his breast, demanded an instant surrender of ' ta hauf 
keenie ; ; a command which the yeoman was obliged to obey, 
for fear of the pistols, though his strength and resolution, 
celebrated to this day as far surpassing those of modern 
men, would have enabled him to defy double the number of 
assailants unprovided with such weapons. 1 

Next day, Friday the 8th of November, Charles proceeded 
down Liddel water ; and the middle column, which had 
marched by Selkirk, Hawick, and down Ewesdale, came up 
to him at Gritmill Green, upon the banks of the Esk, four 
miles below Langholm. When the first division soon after 
entered England, they raised a loud shout, and unsheathed 
their swords ; but some grew pale when informed that 
Locheil, in drawing his weapon, had cut his hand, this 
being looked on as an evil omen. The Prince took up his 
quarters for the night at Reddings, in Cumberland. On the 
succeeding day he was joined by the western column. 

During this march the Highland army lost a great por- 
tion of its numbers by desertion. The eastern column, led 
by Charles himself, suffered most from this cause. The 
Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire roads are described as having 
for some days swarmed with the men who thus abandoned 

which it was said they had taken from the dragoons at Preston. She saw 
some of them dressing these animals in a stable, and could mimic the strange 
uncouth jabber which they used in performing the duties of hostlers. In 
particular, she remembers hearing them call to the beasts, ' Stand about, 
Cope !' &c. As at many other places, Charles was here saluted with marks 
of homage by many of the people as he passed, all the women running out to 
get a kiss of his hand, &c. 
J Tradition in Liddisdale. 



150 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the standard ; l and great quantities of arms were found 
lying in the fields adjacent to the line of march, which the 
deserters had flung* away. 2 

_ On the 9th of November, Charles, having" concentrated 
his forces, approached Carlisle — a city which could once 
boast of being the bulwark of England against the Scots in 
this direction, but whose fortifications were now antiquated, 
and not in the best order. Less pains had been taken on the 
present occasion to fortify the cities in the west of England 
than those upon the east ; and while Newcastle and Hull 
had been for many weeks prepared to resist the insurgents, 
Carlisle was invested only four or five days after having 
first apprehended danger. It was protected by an ancient 
castle, in which there was a company of invalids ; and the 
city itself was surrounded by an old and somewhat dilapi- 
dated wall, manned on the present occasion by the citizens, 
assisted by a considerable body of militia, which had been 
raised in the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland. 

On the 9th, a party of the Prince's hussars appeared on 
Stanwix Bank, and began to survey the city through 
glasses : but a few shots being fired at them from the walls, 
they were obliged to retire. Next day the insurgent army 
having passed the river Eden by several fords, invested the 
city on all sides ; and the Prince sent a letter to the mayor, 
requiring him to surrender peaceably, in order to spare the 
effusion of blood, which must be the inevitable consequence 
of a refusal. The mayor, who was very confident, and had 
published an advertisement informing the world that he 
was not Paterson, a Scotchman, but Pattison, a loyal- 
hearted Englishman, answered by a discharge of cannon at 
the besiegers. Intelligence soon after reaching the Prince 
that Marshal Wade was marching from Newcastle to re- 
lieve Carlisle, he judged it proper to advance against that 
general, in order to engage the royal army in the moun- 
tainous country which intervenes betwixt the two towns. 
Leaving a small portion of his army to annoy Carlisle, he 
reached Warwick castle at ten o'clock in the forenoon of 
the 11th, and quartered next night at Brampton and the 
adjacent villages. 3 He then learned that the information 
regarding Wade was false, and sent back the Duke of Perth, 
with several regiments of foot and some troops of horse, to 
prosecute the siege of Carlisle with all possible vigour. 

Having prepared a quantity of ladders, fascines, and car- 
riages out of the wood in Corby and Warwick parks, the 

* Edin. Courant for the time. 2 Tradition at Peebles. 3 Home's Hist. 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 151 

besieging* party reappeared in full force before the city on 
the afternoon of the 13th, and broke ground for a battery 
within forty fathoms of the walls, the Duke of Perth and 
Lord George Murray working in the trenches without 
their coats, in order to encourage the troops. The garrison 
of the city kept up a continual firing during these opera- 
tions, but without doing much harm. Next day, intimi- 
dated by the formidable appearance of the enemy's works, 
and fatigued almost beyond their natural strength by seve- 
ral nights of ceaseless watching, they felt disposed to resign 
the city ; and accordingly, on the first motion of the be- 
siegers towards an assault, Pattison the Englishman was 
fain to display a white flag from the walls, and ask terms 
for the surrender of the town. A cessation of hostilities 
being then agreed upon, an express was sent to Brampton, 
to learn the Prince's pleasure ; who, remembering the ex- 
ample of Edinburgh, would assign no terms for the city 
unless the castle were included. This being reported to the 
garrison, Colonel Durand, the commander of that fortress, 
consented to surrender his charge along with the city. At 
ten o'clock in the morning of the 15th the gates of Carlisle 
were thrown open, and many a brave man passed with a 
rejoicing heart beneath the arches over which his head was 
hereafter to be stationed in dismal sentinelship. The Duke 
of Perth, on receiving the submission of the garrison, shook 
them by the hands, told them they were brave fellows, and 
asked them to enlist in his service. He secured all the 
arms of the militia and garrison, besides about 1000 stand 
in the castle, with 200 good horses. A great quantity of 
valuables, which had been deposited there for safety by the 
neighbouring gentry, fell likewise into his hands ; but these 
are said to have been returned to their owners. Next day 
the old chevalier and his son were proclaimed at the cross, 
in presence of the mayor and aldermen, and a new docu- 
ment was at the same time read, under the title of a Decla- 
ration of the King's Majesty to his English Subjects. 
Charles was not personally received with much favour in 
Carlisle, but his taking a town of such consequence, after 
so brief a siege, gave some lustre to his arms, and increased 
the fears of the government. 

The short time spent by the army at Carlisle was marked 
by some rather important dissensions among the principal 
officers. According to Maxwell of Kirkconnell, the origin 
of these was with Secretary Murray, who aimed at exercis- 
ing an exclusive influence over the Prince, and disliked 
Lord George Murray as the rival he had most reason to 



152 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

dread. He had gained over Sheridan, O'Sullivan, and the 
Duke of Perth (the last from easy-judging good nature) 
to support him. When Lord George, before the blockade of 
Carlisle, requested to be charged by the Prince with the 
terms he was inclined to grant to the town, Secretary 
Murray told him sharply that that was a matter within 
his province, and with which Lord George had no right to 
interfere. When Lord George afterwards saw the Duke of 
Perth take the chief command at the siege, the measure 
of his dissatisfaction was filled. He immediately (on the 
15th) sent a resignation of his commission to the Prince, 
stating that he would henceforth act as a volunteer, and 
would that night take his place as such in the trenches. 
In a letter of the same date to his brother Tullibardine, he 
assigns the causes above stated for his resolution, adding, in 
the spirit of a true partisan and genuine Highlander, 1 1 
shall show as a volunteer that no man wishes more success 
to the cause ; and I can be of more use charging in the first 
rank of your Athole men, than as a general, where I was 
constantly at a loss to know what was doing/ The Duke 
of Perth no sooner heard of the step taken by Lord George, 
than he also sent in his resignation as lieutenant-general, 
avowing his intention thenceforward to serve at the head of 
his own regiment. There might be fretfulness, or something 
worse, in Lord George's motives, but those of Perth, who 
was of prior appointment as a lieutenant-general, and there- 
fore formally entitled to take the chief command at the 
siege, could not but be pure. Yet the army, while generally 
liking the Duke of Perth, had a higher opinion of the 
talents and experience of Lord George Murray as a com- 
mander, and when they heard of his resignation of his com- 
mission, a very general wish was expressed that he should 
resume it, while no such feeling was avowed with respect 
to the duke. Most of them had, in fact, another and strong 
reason for desiring that Perth should not be conspicuous 
either in command of the army or at the Prince's councils. 
His being a Catholic was already the subject of much un- 
favourable remark in the public journals, and seemed cal- 
culated to injure their prospects very seriously in England. 
There were even ante-revolution laws which made him ineli- 
gible as a councillor. They therefore presented a petition 
to the Prince, with one breath requesting him to reinstate 
Lord George Murray, and to dismiss Roman Catholics from 
his councils. Charles instantly complied with the first re- 
quest, but, from the spirit of courtesy and gratitude, hesi- 
tated about the second. Some difficulty seemed likely to 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 153 

arise on that point, when the duke himself, learning* what 
was the opinion of the army, put all to rights, by informing* 
the Prince that he was quite happy, for the sake of what 
was thought the good of the cause, to serve without a 
general's commission. Henceforth Lord George Murray 
held the chief command in the army. 

On the day after the reduction of Carlisle, Marshal Wade 
commenced a march from Newcastle ; but hearing of the 
success of the insurgents, and being unable to cross the 
countiy on account of a great fall of snow, his excellency 
found it necessary to return to that city on the 22d. 

More effectual means were now taken by the king to 
suppress what was generally styled l the unnatural rebellion. 7 
Before the Scottish army set foot on English ground, the 
mass of the British troops had landed at London from 
Flanders ; and while the Prince was residing in Carlisle, 
an army of 10,000 troops, chiefly veteran and experienced, 
was rendezvoused in Staffordshire to oppose him. It seemed 
scarcely possible that he should either elude or vanquish so 
strong a force ; and even the Highlanders themselves, with 
all their valour, real and adventitious, had little hope of 
doing' so. In order, moreover, that the fate of the empire 
should not be perilled on such a chance, another army was 
raised for the protection of London, which the king was 
resolved to command in person. Charles himself was not 
intimidated by these great preparations, which he trusted 
to overcome by the vigour of his measures, and by the 
assistance which he expected in England. But the greater 
part of his council viewed the government proceedings 
with alarm. 

At a council of war held a few days after the surrender 
of Carlisle, various movements were proposed and taken 
under consideration. It was proposed to march to New- 
castle, and bring "Wade's army to an action. It was pro- 
posed to march directly to London, by the Lancashire road, 
at the hazard of encountering the superior force mustered 
in Staffordshire. A third proposal urged an immediate 
retreat to Scotland, as there seemed no appearance of either 
a French invasion or an English insurrection. Charles 
declared his wish to march to London at all hazards, and 
desired Lord George Murray to give his opinion of the 
various proposals. Lord George spoke at some length, 
compared the advantages and disadvantages of each of the 
proposals, and concluded that, if his Royal Highness chose 
to make a trial of what could be done by a march to the 
southward, he was persuaded that his army, small as it 



154 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

was, would follow him. Charles instantly decided for the 
march. 

Before proceeding, Charles sent Maclachlan of Maclachlan 
back to Scotland with a letter to Lord Strathallan, whom 
he had left at Perth commander-in-chief of his forces in 
Scotland, ordering him to march, with all the troops he 
might have collected, after the army into England. Mean- 
while he received some discouraging intelligence from the 
north. No sooner had he vacated Edinburgh, than it had 
returned under Whig domination ; and even at Dundee and 
Perth, where he had considerable bodies of troops stationed, 
there had been outbreaks of popular feeling in behalf of the 
government. 

Thirty baggage wagons, in which were the tents for the 
army, had been left behind at Lockerby, through the eager- 
ness of those in charge to get forward to the siege of Car- 
lisle. These were seized on the 14th by a larg-e party of 
people from Dumfries, and carried in triumph to that town. 
Charles sent Locheil to reclaim the property, or £2000 in 
lieu of it ; but before either object could be accomplished, 
he had to recall the party to join the army on its march to 
the south. Owing to the want of tents, and the severity of 
the weather (the 20th of November, old style, was in reality 
the 1st of December), it was necessary to arrange the march 
in such a way as to get the army accommodated in the 
towns along the road. It was determined that one portion of 
the army should march a day's journey ahead of the other, 
the latter always occupying at night the quarters which the 
former had vacated in the morning ; but that, where the 
country would admit of it, there should be only half a day's 
march betwixt the two bodies. 1 

The army, on being mustered at Carlisle, was found to 
amount to about 4500, a full thousand having dropped away 
in the march from Edinburgh. Yet Charles had no doubt 
that it would soon be largely increased by the accession of 
his English friends. On the 21st, the first detachment of 
the army, consisting of five of the low-country regiments, 
with Elcho's life-guards, under Lord George Murray, 
marched to Penrith. Next day, while these went forward to 
Kendal, the clan regiments, and the remainder of the horse, 
under the Prince in person, proceeded to Penrith, leaving 
150 men as a garrison in Carlisle. The cannon followed 
the second division, under the care of the Duke of Perth's 
regiment. 2 In both divisions, each regiment had the van 

1 Maxwell's Narrative. 2 Home's History. 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 155 

by turns. Thus they advanced by Shap, Kendal, Lancaster, 
and Garstang, to Preston, where the two divisions joined on 
the 27th. To encourage his men, Charles generally went 
on foot beside them. As he passed over the desolate tract 
between Penrith and Shap, he was so much overcome by 
fatigue and want of sleep, that he found it necessary to take 
hold of one of the clan Ogilvie by the shoulder-belt, to pre- 
vent him from falling ; and he thus walked several miles 
half asleep. 1 As yet, they had observed nothing but marks 
of aversion and suspicion amongst the English people. Their 
political object seemed to excite no sympathy; their un- 
couth dress, language, and habits spread terror before their 
march. It is credibly affirmed that many of the women 
hid their children at their approach, under an impression 
that they were cannibals, fond, in particular, of the flesh of 
infants. 2 Everywhere there was great surprise that these 
men, so far from acting like savage robbers, expressed a 
polite gratitude for what refreshments were given them. 
The Highlanders every day began their painful march 
before daybreak, with no provisions but what they carried 
in the shape of oatmeal, in a long bag by their sides, and 
which they never cooked, but merely mixed, before eating, 
with a canteen full of cold water — trusting for any variety 
in this simple cheer to the accident of a bullock killed for 
their use, or to the hospitality of their landlords at night. 
The English were amazed to find that men could, upon this 
fare, walk from twenty to thirty miles in a winter day, 
exposed to bitter cold and tempestuous weather, with 
what appeared to them imperfect clothing, or rather rags ; 
and that, though generally housed some hours after sunset, 

1 Information by a Scottish bishop, who has conversed with the proud 
Ogilvie whose shoulder was thus honoured. 

2 * The terror of the English was truly inconceivable, and in many cases 
they seemed bereft of their senses. One evening, as Mr Cameron of Locheil 
entered the lodgings assigned him, his landlady, an old woman, threw her- 
self at his feet, and with uplifted hands, and tears in her eyes, supplicated 
him to take her life, but to spare her two little children. He asked her if she 
was in her senses, and told her to explain herself ; when she answered, that 
everybody said the Highlanders ate children, and made them their common food. 
Mr Cameron having assured her that they would not injure either her or her 
little children, or any person whatever, she looked at him for some moments 
with an air of surprise, and then opened a press, calling out with a loud voice, 
" Come out, children, the gentleman will not eat you." The children imme- 
diately left the press, where she had concealed them, and threw themselves at 
his feet.'— Johnstone's Memoirs, p. 101. 

In a letter from Derby, which made the round of the journals, the writer 
describes the ferocity and filthiness of the troop which was quartered upon 
him, with extravagant expressions of disgust. He allows, however, that he 
was amused a good deal to see them, before meat, take off their bonnets, 
assume a reverent air, and say grace, ' as if they had been Christians.' 



156 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

they invariably rose very early to prosecute their march, 
taking advantage of the moonlight, which then shone in 
the mornings before daybreak. 

At Preston, for the first time, did a slight gleam of ap- 
probation rest on the cause. The bells were rung at their 
entry, probably by the intervention of the Catholics, who 
abounded in the town. Some huzzas attended the reading 
of the proclamations, and a few recruits were obtained. Mr 
Townley, a Catholic gentleman, here joined the standard, 
being the first man of distinction who had done so in Eng- 
land. A council of war was held, at which the Prince, ever 
eager, like his ancestor Bruce, to 6 go on,' renewed his 
assurances of English and French assistance, and thereby 
prevailed on the chiefs to continue their southward march. 
The clansmen had a superstitious dread, in consequence of 
the misfortunes of their party at Preston in 1715, that they 
would never get beyond this town : to dispel the illusion, 
Lord George Murray crossed the Ribble, and quartered a 
number of men on the other side. 

On the 28th, the whole army left Preston, and, quarter- 
ing for the night at Wigan, advanced on the ensuing day 
to Manchester. This town, now so remarkable for a reform- 
ing spirit, contained, in 1745, a larger proportion of the ad- 
herents of legitimacy than perhaps any other in England. 
Here, therefore, it might be expected that Charles would 
have a good reception, and obtain large reinforcements, if 
he was anywhere to be so fortunate in his southward 
march. 

One Dickson, a sergeant enlisted into the Highland army 
from the prisoners taken at Prestonpans, having got more 
than a day's march ahead of the rest, entered Manchester 
on the morning of the 28th, attended by his mistress and a 
drummer. The adventure was entirely an idea of his own, 
and even contrary to the orders of his superior officer. 
Within an hour of his arrival he began to beat up for re- 
cruits. The populace did not at first interrupt him, con- 
ceiving that the whole army was near the town ; but when 
they learned that no part of it could be expected till the 
evening, they surrounded him in a tumultuous manner, 
with the intention of taking him prisoner. Dickson pre- 
sented his blunderbuss, which was charged with slugs, 
threatening to blow out the brains of those who first dared 
to lay hands on himself or the two who accompanied him ; 
and by turning round continually, facing in all directions, 
and behaving like a lion, he soon enlarged the circle which 
a crowd of people had formed around him. Having* con- 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 157 

tinued for some time to manoeuvre in this way, those of the 
inhabitants of Manchester who were attached to the house 
of Stuart took arms, and flew to the assistance of Dick- 
son, to rescue him from the fury of the mob ; so that he 
had soon 500 or 600 men to aid him, who dispersed the 
crowd in a very short time. He now triumphed in his 
turn, and, putting* himself at the head of his followers, 
proudly paraded, undisturbed, the whole day with his 
drummer, enlisting all who offered themselves. The num- 
ber of his levies has been differently stated. The Chevalier 
Johnstone says he obtained 180 recruits; but another autho- 
rity says only thirty, i to each of whom a white cockade 
was given, and a bounty of five guineas promised.' l 

About nine o'clock that night, the vanguard, consisting 
of about 100 horsemen, arrived in Manchester; and next 
day the whole army came up. The Prince entered at two 
in the afternoon, walking in the midst of a select band of 
Highlanders ; his dress a light tartan plaid, belted with a 
blue sash, a gray wig, and a blue velvet bonnet, topped by 
a rose of white ribbons, the badge of his house. He took 
up his quarters in a handsome house in Market Street, be- 
longing to a gentleman named Dickenson — afterwards, from 
that circumstance, called ' The Palace/ and long* after used 
as an inn. 2 A local writer has given a sufficiently minute 
account of what happened at Manchester on this and the 
following day. l In the course of the day [the 29th], the 
public crier was sent round the town to require that all 
persons who had any duties to pay, or any public money in 
their hands, should pay the amount into the hands of 
Secretary Murray, at the palace, taking the receipt of this 
officer as their discharge. As evening approached, the bell- 
man was again despatched to announce that there would 
that night be an illumination in honour of the arrival of 
the Prince. The illumination accordingly took place ; 
bonfires were made, and the bells rung joyfully; but the 
treasury was not much replenished, till a peremptory demand 
was made upon the inhabitants. Many of the communica- 
tions at the head-quarters were made with the intervention 
of a green silk curtain, which was suspended in the room of 
audience, and through which, it is said, even the master of 
the house, from prudential motives, communicated with his 
guest without seeing him. The borough-reeve, James 
Waller, of Ridgefield, Esq. was made the reluctant organ 
for communicating the proclamations of the rebel army to 

1 Manchester Gazette, January 19, 1828. 

2 The house has for some years been replaced by a new building. 



158 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the people ; but the Rev. Mr Clayton celebrated, in strains 
of eloquence, the arrival of the Prince in the collegiate 
church, for which act of disaffection to the reigning sove- 
reign he was afterwards degraded. A young clergyman, 
of the name of Coppoch, lately from the university, received 
the appointment of chaplain to the Prince. 1 

On the 30th, the whole of the rebel army, with the 
artillery and baggage, consisting' of sixteen pieces of can- 
non, a number of covered wagons, and about one hundred 
laden horses, were assembled in the town and neighbour- 
hood of Manchester. The recruiting service went on 
briskly, and from 200 to 300 young men, chiefly of the 
lower class, were dignified with the name of the Man- 
chester Regiment, of which Francis Townley, Esq. was 
appointed commander. Thomas Theodorus Deacon, Charles 
Deacon, and Robert Deacon, the sons of a nonjuring minis- 
ter, catching the contagion of disloyalty, became officers in 
this corps ; and George Fletcher, a linendraper in Salford ; 
James Dawson, of St John's college, Cambridge, son of 
Mr Dawson of Manchester; and John Beswick, a linen- 
draper in Manchester, were placed in the rank of cap- 
tains. Thomas Chadwick, bred a tallow-chandler, was 
appointed lieutenant ; and Thomas Syddall, the son of the 
peruke-maker who was executed for taking part in the 
rebellion of 1715, was appointed adjutant. Both officers 
and men wore white cockades, and the authority of the 
colonel was indicated by the addition of a tartan sash. 
The other officers had each a broadsword by his side, and 
a brace of pistols in his girdle. Before the Manchester 
Regiment entered upon their campaign, they had the honour 
to be reviewed by their Prince, the young* chevalier ; and 
Colonel Townley, as if foreseeing their destiny, selected 
the churchyard for the field of review. The contributions 
levied upon the town amounted to £3000, and many of 
the horses within reach were put into requisition either to 
mount the cavalry, or to convey the baggage. The conduct 
of the Highlanders was in some instances rapacious, waste- 
ful, and offensive ; but in general the troops conducted 
themselves with moderation, and the behaviour of their 
officers was conciliatory, and even courteous. 2 

An impression had prevailed that the Highland army 

1 Common rumour represented this young man as the rebel bishop of Car- 
lisle, as if the Prince had nominated him to that see. No such appointment 
ever took place. 

2 From a paper entitled 'The Highland Army in Manchester in 1745/ 
which appeared in the Manchester Gazette, January 19, 1828. 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 159 

might march into Wales, a country in which they could 
act with advantage as irregular troops, and where their 
cause was understood to have many friends. The bridges 
over the Mersey, on the way to Chester, had therefore been 
broken down, to impede their progress. This precaution 
proved unnecessary. 

On the 1st of December, the army left Manchester in two 
divisions, one of which took the road to Stockport, the 
other that to Knottesford, thus showing that London was 
their object. The bridges had been broken down in this 
direction also ; the army had therefore to cross, the Mersey 
by other means. 1 At Knottesford, a temporary bridge was 
made of the trunks of poplar- trees, laid lengthwise, with 
planks across. The horse and artillery passed at Cheadle- 
ford. The Prince, with the other detachment, crossed at 
Stockport, having the water up to his middle. Here a 
romantic circumstance is said to have taken place. A few 
gentlemen of Cheshire had drawn up on the south bank of 
the river to welcome the Prince on his crossing the river, 
and among them was a Mrs Skyring, a lady in extreme old 
age. ' As a child, she had been lifted up in her mother's 
arms to view the happy landing at Dover of Charles II. 
Her father, an old cavalier, had afterwards to undergo not 
merely neglect, but oppression, from that thankless monarch ; 
still, however, he and his wife continued devoted to the 
royal cause, and their daughter grew up as devoted as they. 
After the expulsion of the Stuarts, all her thoughts, her 
hopes, her prayers, were directed to another restoration. 
Ever afterwards she had, with rigid punctuality, laid aside 
one half of her yearly income, to remit for the exiled family 
abroad; concealing only, what she said was of no importance 
to them, the name of the giver. She had now parted with 
her jewels, her plate, and every little article of value she 
possessed, the price of which, in a purse, she laid at the 
feet of Prince Charles, while, straining her dim eyes to 

1 While at Manchester, Charles published the following curious proclama- 
tion, for a copy of which I have been indebted to the kindness of an inhabi- 
tant of that town. The sneer at good old Grandmother Wade, who, according 
to the Jacobite punster, could not ivade through the snow, will scarcely fail 
to be relished :— 

* TO THE INHABITANTS OF MANCHESTER. 

His Royal Highness being informed that several bridges have been pulled 
down in this country, he has given orders to repair them forthwith, particu- 
larly that at Crossford, which is to be done this night by his own troops, 
though his Royal Highness does not propose to make use of it for his own army, 
but believes it will be of service to the country ; and if any forces that were 
with General Wade be coming this road, they may have the benefit of it. 

Manchester, Nov. 30, 1745.' 



160 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

gaze on his features, and pressing his hand to her shrivelled 
lips, she exclaimed with affectionate rapture, in the words 
of Simeon, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
peace ! " It is added that she did not survive the shock, 
when, a few days afterwards, she was informed of the 
retreat. Such, even when misdirected in its object, or 
exaggerated in its force, was the old spirit of loyalty in 
England ! ? * 

In the evening (December 1), the two divisions joined at 
Macclesfield, where Charles received intelligence that the 
Duke of Cumberland had taken command of the army 
mustered in Staffordshire, 2 which was now on its march, 
and quartered at Lichfield, Coventry, Stafford, and New- 
castle-under-Lyne. It was resolved that the Highland 
army should march to Derby. To deceive the enemy as to 
this design, Lord George Murray proceeded with a column 
to Congleton, on the straight road to Lichfield, while the 
rest advanced to Derby. It was calculated that the English 
commander, hearing of a body on the march towards his 
present position, would concentrate his forces and his atten- 
tion there, and thus allow the main body of the Highland 
forces to pass beyond him uninterrupted. As Lord George 
advanced to Congleton, the Duke of Kingston, in command 
of a body of horse, retired from that town to Newcastle- 
under-Lyne. An advanced party of Lord George's men, 
under Colonel Ker, went forward at night (December 2) 
towards Newcastle-under-Lyne, whence the dragoons broke 
up with great precipitation, some of them escaping through 
windows. This party seized one Weir, a noted spy, who 
was only saved from hanging by the clemency of the 
Prince. 3 The effect of these movements, and of the false 
intelligence given out, was exactly what had been expected. 
The duke, at Stafford (December 2), received intelligence 
that a large body of the insurgents were at Congleton, and 
that the rest were to be there at night. He therefore 
proceeded that night at eleven o'clock to Stone, thus allow- 
ing the main body of the Highlanders to get past him. 
Early in the morning of the 3d, having effected his design, 
Lord George left Congleton, and passing through Leek, 
reached Ashbourn in the evening. 

Some hours after he had passed Leek, the Prince, with 

1 History of Great Britain, by Lord Mahon, who states that he derived the 
anecdote from the late Lord Keith. 

2 The Duke of Cumberland left London on the 25th, and superseded Sir 
John Ligonier in the command of the army. 

3 Maxwell of Kirkconnel. 



INVASION OF ENGLAND. 161 

the main body of the army, arrived there, being on the 
straight road to Derby. At midnight, the latter party set 
out from Leek, and reached Ashbourn early in the morning, 
in order that any sudden attack from the Duke of Cumber- 
land might find them all together. Early on the 4th, a 
portion of the army proceeded to Derby, which they entered 
at eleven in the forenoon. About three, Lord Elcho came 
in with the life-guards and some of the principal officers on 
horseback, c making a very respectable appearance.' The 
main body of the army continued to enter in small detach- 
ments during all the latter part of the day (to convey, as 
was supposed, an impression of the greatness of their num- 
bers), with bagpipes playing and colours unfurled ; ! and in 
the evening the Prince arrived on foot, and took up his 
quarters in the house of the Earl of Exeter. During the 
day the bells were rung, and bonfires lighted, and there 
was an illumination (how far voluntary is not stated) at 
night. The magistrates were ordered to attend the procla- 
mations in their official gowns ; but when it was known 
that they had sent these away beforehand, their attendance 
was excused, and the proclamations were made by the com- 
mon crier. 

Charles was now within 127 miles — to him less than a 
week's march — of the capital of England. In consequence 
of the dexterous manoeuvre of Lord George Murray, he 
could have advanced thither without fighting with the 
Duke of Cumberland, who was, on the 4th, returning from 
Stone to Stafford, where he was nine miles farther from Lon- 
don than the chevalier, whom he could have had no hope of 
overtaking with infantry, supposing that Charles had been 
pleased to proceed immediately. 2 Two armies in succession 
had thus been eluded by the Highlanders — that of Wade, in 
consequence of the weather or the old marshaPs inactivity, 3 
and that of Cumberland, through the ingenuity of their own 
leaders. There remained yet a third army at Finchley 
Common ; but it was not formidable in character or num- 
bers, and probably might have failed to meet the clans in 
battle, if they had marched still onward. No invading 
band, since the days of the Saxon kings, had ever been 

1 Boyse, 104. Their colours were mostly white, with red crosses. 

2 The duke employed the 5th in marching to Lichfield, where he would 
have had some chance of intercepting the Highlanders, who had spent that 
day at Derby. 

3 Wade's army had now advanced from Newcastle into Yorkshire. It Avas 
at Wetherby on the 4th, and on the 5th was marching to Doncaster, the 
commander having then heard of the advance of the Highlanders into Derby- 
shire. 

VOL. V. K 



162 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

allowed to advance so far and so threateningly into Eng- 
land ; for though the Duke of Hamilton, in 1648, had got 
to Uttoxeter, it was only with a small portion of an army 
broken to pieces a good way farther north. 1 

Hitherto the English people had entertained a very 
inadequate idea of the insurrection. If we are to judge 
from the tenor of the public journals, where the Highland 
army is invariably spoken of with contempt, both on phy- 
sical and moral grounds, the English generally had not the 
most faint apprehension of the bold and generous spirit of 
self-devotion which prompted these men to leave their 
homes, and thus expose themselves not only to the perils of 
war, but the pains of treason, for the sake of a cause which, 
however mistakenly, they conceived to be that of justice 
and patriotism. The whole expedition of the chevalier and 
his attendant bands seems to have been regarded as only 
an odd piece of mob-procedure, which a proper exertion of 
regular military force would put down. There even seems 
to have been some disposition to look upon it as a novel 
kind of show. The poet Gray writes from Cambridge : 
6 Here we had no more sense of danger than if it were the 
battle of Cannse. I heard three sensible middle-aged men, 
when the Scotch were said to be at Stamford, and actually 
were at Derby, talking of hiring' a chaise to go to Caxton, 
a place on the high road [on the high road, be it recollected, 
from Derby to London, from which it is only distant fifty 
miles], to see the Pretender and the Highlanders as they 
passed. 7 Much of the apprehension was no doubt owing 
to a line of policy assumed by the government party. It 
was thought equivalent to a profession of Jacobitism to 
speak in respectful terms of the chevalier, his followers, or 
the strength of his army. This of course was a sword that 
cut two ways, for while it tended to keep down popular 
feeling in behalf of Charles, it also favoured a feeling of 
security in the highest degree useful to him. 

Now, however, the metropolis at least became strongly im- 
pressed with a sense of danger. When intelligence reached 
it that the Highlanders were getting past the Duke of 
Cumberland's army, and had reached Derby, consternation 

1 Swarkstone Bridge, six miles beyond Derby, on the road to London, was, 
in reality, the extreme point of this singular invasion, because the insurgents 
posted an advanced guard there, which kept possession of the pass till the 
retreat was determined on. No former host from Scotland penetrated beyond 
the Tees, or overran more than the frontier counties ; but this last, and, it 
maybe added, least, of all the armies Scotland ever sent against the Southron, 
had thus reached the Trent, traversed five counties in succession, and in- 
sulted the very centre of England. 



RETREAT TO SCOTLAND. 163 

took possession of the inhabitants. Fielding", in his True 
Patriot, describes the degree of terror which prevailed as 
beyond all belief. The Chevalier Johnstone, speaking* from 
information which he procured a few months afterwards 
on the spot, says that the shops were shut, many people 
fled to the country, taking- with them their most precious 
effects, and the bank only escaped insolvency by paying* in 
sixpences to persons in its confidence, who, g'oing out at 
one door, and returning* at another, received the same money 
over and over ag*ain, and thus kept back the bonajide holders 
of notes. The ministers were perplexed. It has been alleged 
that the Duke of Newcastle, then one of the secretaries of 
state, shut himself up in his house for a day, deliberating 
whether he should not at once declare for the Stuarts. King 1 
George was said to have ordered his yachts, in which he 
had embarked his most valuable effects, to remain at the 
Tower-stairs, in readiness to sail at a moment's warning. 
Perhaps some of these allegations were mere popular rumour, 
but they show at least a degree of fear which must have 
been thought sufficient to render them credible. And ; in 
truth, the danger, if danger it is to be called, was by no 
means inconsiderable, for not only was the Highland army 
within a few days' march, with little to oppose its progress, 
but there was a party in the city, including, it now appears, 
one of the aldermen (a Mr Heathcote), who were expected 
to make a public appearance in the same cause, and a French 
army was expected to land on the coast. The day of all 
this consternation was afterwards remembered under the 
expressive appellation of Black Friday. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

RETREAT TO SCOTLAND. 

The games are done, and Csesar is returning. 

Julius Ccesar. 

Intelligence reached the Prince at Derby of the ar- 
rival of Lord John Drummond, brother of the Duke of 
Perth, at Montrose with a body of French troops. A treaty 
had been entered into at Fontainbleau, on the 23d of October, 
between the Marquis D'Argenson on the part of Louis XV., 
and Colonel O'Brien on the part of Charles, Prince Regent 
of Scotland, agreeing that there should be friendship and 



184 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

alliance between the parties ; that the king* should aid the 
Prince Regent in every practicable way against their com- 
mon enemy the Elector of Hanover; and that the king 
should furnish the Prince with a body of troops from his 
Irish regiments, along with other troops, 6 to defend the 
provinces which had submitted, or should submit, to the 
regency, to attack the common enemy, and to follow every 
movement which should be judged useful or necessary. 71 
In consequence of this agreement, Lord John Drummond, 
who was a subject of France, embarked 1000 men about 
the middle of November at Dunkirk, together with a con- 
siderable quantity of stores and ammunition. Excepting 
a few transports taken by English cruisers, containing one 
or two hundred of the men, this little armament arrived in 
good order at Montrose near the end of November; and 
Drummond, on the 2d of December, published the follow- 
ing manifesto : — ' We, Lord John Drummond, commander- 
in-chief of his most Christian Majesty's forces in Scotland, 
do hereby declare that we are come to this kingdom with 
written orders to make war against the king of England, 
Elector of Hanover, and his adherents ; and that the posi- 
tive orders we have from his most Christian Majesty are, 
to attack all his enemies in this kingdom, whom he has 
declared to be those who will not immediately join and 
assist, as far as will lie in their power, the Prince of Wales, 
Regent in Scotland, &c. and his ally; and whom he is 
resolved, with the concurrence of the king of Spain, to 
support in taking possession of Scotland, England, and 
Ireland, if necessary, at the expense of all the men and 
money he is master of; to which three kingdoms the family 
of Stuart have so just and indisputable a title. And his 
most Christian Majesty's positive orders are, that his ene- 
mies should be used in this kingdom in proportion to the 
harm they do or intend to his Royal Highnesses cause.' Lord 
John, according to instructions he had received, lost no 
time in sending a messenger to Count Nassau, commander 
of the Dutch auxiliaries called over into England, requiring 
him to observe a neutrality, agreeably to the capitulations 
of Tournay and Dendermonde, by which they had agreed 
for a certain time not to fight against the king of France 
and his allies. 

Immediately after the departure of Lord John Drummond 
from France, the ministers made serious preparations for 
a much larger armament, which they designed to have 

1 The whole treaty is printed from the Stuart Papers in the appendix to 
Browne's History of the Highlands. 



RETREAT TO SCOTLAND. 165 

landed on the south coast of England. Ten thousand troops 
were mustered for this purpose, and Prince Henry Stuart, 
Charles's younger brother, was brought to Paris to accom- 
pany the expedition. Every preparation had been made ; 
the king had taken leave of the young Prince, telling- him 
that he would l dine quietly in London on the 9th of Ja- 
nuary' (meaning the 29th of December, old style) ; and the 
plan was only abandoned when intelligence came of the 
retreat of the Highland army from Derby. 1 Had that 
army gone on, the French invasion would have taken place 
in time to support Charles in London, supposing that he 
had seized the government ; and the Stuart dynasty must 
have been reinstated on the throne. 

The morning of the 5th saw the Prince at Derby, 2 eager 

1 The concentration of the English fleet to oppose the intended invasion, 
allowed the French privateers to be unusually active. In the months of 
November and December, these marauders were calculated to have taken a 
hundred and sixty British vessels, valued at £660,000. 

2 The following friendly jeu d' esprit, entitled * A Dialogue between a Gentle- 
woman at Derby and her Maid Jenny, in the beginning of December 1745,' 
appears worthy of preservation. It is copied from a broadside of the day, in 
which the piece is said to be * taken from the Chester Journal :' — 

Mistress. — Jenny, come here : I'm told that you have been 
To see this man. Jenny. —What man ? Mistress. — Why, you have seen 
The young Pretender, hussy, at his lodging : 
Is it not so ? Come, tell me without dodging. 

Jenny.— Why, really, madam, I was passing by, 
Thinking no harm — not in the least— not I ; 
And somebody or other that I met 

Mistress.— What somebody ? Jenny.— Indeed now I forget, 
Said what a handsome man he was — and so, 
Begging your pardon, madam, I did go ; 
But had no ill intention in the thing ; 
A cat may look, as folks say, at a king. 

Mistress.— King do you call him, ye rebellious slut ? 

Jenny.— I did not call him so, good madam, but 

Mistress.— But me !— no butting, not another day 
Shall any rebel in my service stay : 
I owe you twenty shillings — there's a guinea — 
Pack up, and go about your business, Jenny. 
Matters are come, indeed, to a fine pass ; 
The next thing, I suppose, you'll go to mass. 

Jenny.— To mass ! What road ? For I don't know the place, 
Nor could I tell which way to turn my face. 

Mistress.— Turn !— you'll turn papist, and believe black's white. 

Jenny.— Why, bless me, madam, I han't lost my sight ! 

Mistress.— And then the priest will bid you cut my throat. 

Jenny. — Dear loving mistress, how you talk by rote ! 
I would not hurt a hair of your dear head, 
Were all the priests in mass to kill me dead ; 
And, I don't say it with design to brag, 
Since I've been with you, you han't lost a rag. 
I cut your throat ! because I saw the Prince, 
And never thought of black or white e'er since. 

Mistress.— Good ! This is you that did not call him king ! 
And is not prince, ye minx, the self -same thing ? 



166 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

to go forward on his march at all hazards, but hopeful that 
succours from France, and a rising* of his English friends, 
would make it less dangerous than it appeared. The men, 
in general, were in high spirits, and very anxious to come 
to an engagement with the Duke of Cumberland's army. 
The common expectation was, that a battle was about to 
take place ; and with this view there was a general sharpen- 
ing of broadswords at the cutlers' shops, and some took the 
sacrament in the churches. Little was it thought that their 
leaders were about to resolve upon quite a contrary move- 
ment. 

At a council of war held on the morning of the 5th, Lord 
George Murray and the other members gave it as their 
unanimous opinion that the army ought to return to Scot- 

Jenny.— You are so hasty, madam, with your snarles ; 
Would you ha' me ca' the gentleman plain Ch — s ? 

Mistress. — Prince Ch — s again ! Speak out your treason tales ; 
His Royal Highness, Ch — s, the Prince of W— s. 

Jenny.— Oh. ! madam, you say more of him than me, 
For I said nothing of his pedigree. 

Mistress. — Pedigree ! Fool— what would the wench be at ? 
What pedigree has any bastard brat ? 

Jenny. — Nay, I'm no herald : be he what he will, 
He is a charming man to look at still ; 
When I was got in there amongst the throng, 
His Royal Highness Mistress.— Hussy, hold your tongue. 

Jenny. — You called him so yourself but just e'en now. 

Mistress.— Yes, so I did ; but then the manner how ? 

Jenny. — And will you turn a servant out o' doors 
Because her manners be'n't so fine as yours ? 

Mistress.— Jenny ! I say you had no business neither 
To see the creature, nor go near him either. 

Jenny.— Creature ! — nay, pardon, madam, he is no creature, 
But a sweet comely Christian every feature. 

Mistress. — No creature ! Would you worship him, you dunce? 

Jenny.— -I would you were to see his worship once. 

Mistress.— How can the girl cross- question like a fool ? 
Or think that I should go and see the tool ? 
Jenny, though you have done so far amiss, 
I pity such an ignorance as this ; 
If you'll go mind your work as heretofore, 
And keep at home, I'll pass the matter o'er. 

Jenny.— Ah, madam, you're so good, let me but speak 
My simple mind, or else my heart will break ; 
I've such a strange foreboding in my heart, 
If you but saw him once, we should not part. 
Do see him once— what harm is there in seeing ? 
If, after that, there be not an agreeing, 
Then call me twenty rebel sluts— if you, 
When you have seen him, be'n't a rebel too. 

Now whether Jenny did persuade her dame, 
Has not, as yet, been trumpeted by fame ; 
Sometimes there happen to be secret views, 
That are not put into the public news ; 
But by report, that private rumour gives. 
She'll never part with Jenny while she lives. 



RETREAT TO SCOTLAND. 167 

land. Lord George pointed out that they were about to be 
environed by three armies, amounting' collectively to about 
30,000 men, while their own forces were not above 5000, 
if so many. Supposing* an unsuccessful engagement with 
any of those armies, it could not be expected that one man 
would escape, for the militia would beset every road. The 
Prince, if not slain in the battle, must fall into the enemy's 
hands. The whole world would blame them as fools for 
running into such a risk. Charles answered that he re- 
garded not his own danger. He l pressed with all the force 
of argument to go forward. He did not doubt (he said) 
that the justice of his cause would prevail. He was hopeful 
there might be a defection in the enemy's army, and that 
many would declare for him. He was so very bent on 
putting all to the risk, that the Duke of Perth was for it, 
since his Royal Highness was. At last he proposed going 
to Wales, instead of returning to Carlisle ; but every other 
officer declared his opinion for a retreat.' These are nearly 
the words of Lord George Murray : l we are elsewhere told 
that the Prince condescended to use intreaties to induce 
his adherents to alter their resolution. l Rather than go 
back,' he said, 6 I could wish to be twenty feet under 
ground!' 2 His chagrin, when he found his councillors 
obdurate, was beyond all bounds. The council broke up, 
in the understanding that the retreat was to commence 
next morning, Lord George volunteering to take the post 
of honour in the rear, provided only that he should not be 
troubled with the baggage. 

In the course of the day Charles spoke of the intended 
movement to various officers, in such terms, that a few, 
particularly Secretary Murray and Sir Thomas Sheridan 
(from a desire of ingratiating themselves with him, as Lord 
George Murray suspected), expressed their regret for the 
resolution, saying that they had approved of it in the morn- 
ing only from an idea that the soldiers would not go hear- 
tily into a battle when they knew that their officers were 
otherwise inclined. In the evening*, when the whole of the 
officers were once more together, and were given to under- 
stand what these gentlemen had said, they told the Prince 
1 that they valued their lives as little as brave men ought 
to do, and if he inclined to go forward, they would do their 
duty to the last ; but they desired that those who had ad- 
vised his Royal Highness to march forward would sign their 

1 Narrative, Jacobite Memoirs. 

2 Memoirs of Captain Daniel, a volunteer, MS., apud Lord Malion's His- 
tory. 



168 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

opinion, which would be a satisfaction to them. 71 Murray 
and Sheridan were not disposed to do this, and the retreat 
was therefore determined upon. 

During the earlier part of the march of the Prince 
into England, the leading Jacobites of that country had 
kept back, under an impression that, with so small a force, 
he was not likely to produce a general mustering of the 
party in his favour. Charles had therefore little or no 
communication of any kind with the party during his 
march. 2 Yet it appears that the very boldness of his onward 
movement, especially taken in connexion with the expected 
descent from France, at length disposed them to come out ; 
and many were just on the point of declaring themselves, 
and marching to join his army, when the retreat from Derby 
was determined on. A Mr Barry arrived in Derby two 
days after the Prince left it, with a message from Sir Watkin 
William Wynne and Lord B anymore, to assure him, in 
the name of many friends of the cause, that they were ready 
to join him in what manner he pleased, either in the capital, 
or every one to rise in his own county. 3 I have likewise 
been assured that many of the Welsh gentry had actually 
left their homes, and were on their way to join Charles, 
when intelligence of his retreat at once sent them all back 
peaceably, convinced that it was now too late to contribute 
their assistance. These men, from the power they had over 
their tenantry, could have added materially to his military 
force. 4 In fact, from all that appears, we must conclude 
that the insurgents had a very considerable chance of suc- 
cess from an onward movement — also, no doubt, a chance 
of destruction, and yet not worse than what ultimately 
befell many of them — while a retreat broke in a moment 
the spell which their gallantry had conjured up, and gave 
the enemy a great advantage over them. 

The resolution of the council not being made known that 
night to the army at large, the common men, and many of 
the officers, on commencing their march next morning 
before daybreak, thought they were going to fight the 
Duke of Cumberland, and displayed the utmost cheerful- 
ness and alacrity. But as soon as daylight allowed them 

1 Lord George Murray's Narrative, Jacobite Memoirs. 

2 Examination of Secretary Murray, Appendix to Lord Mahon's History. 

3 The Prince mentions this in a letter to his father, February 12, 1747. 
Stuart Papers ; Lord Mahon's History. 

4 My informant adds, that the Jacobite squires of Wales used afterwards, 
in their cups, to boast how far each had travelled on his way to join the che- 
valier ; a man who had gone fifty miles looking upon himself as twice as good 
a partisan as one who had gone only five-and-twenty ; and so on. 



RETREAT TO SCOTLAND. 169 

to see the surrounding* objects, and they found, from marks 
they had taken of the road, that they were retracing* their 
steps, nothing* was to be heard throughout the army but 
expressions of rage and lamentation. ' If we had been 
beaten/ says the Chevalier Johnstone, * our grief could not 
have been greater/ 

The vexation of the army on this account was nothing to 
the bitter disappointment of its unhappy leader. Vestigia 
nulla retrorsum had been his motto from the beginning ; 
and so long as he was going* forward, no danger, and far 
less any privation or fatigue, had given him the least con- 
cern. But now, when at length compelled to turn back 
from the glittering prize which had almost been within his 
grasp, he lost all his former spirit, and, from being the 
leader of his hardy bands, became in appearance, as he was 
in reality, their reluctant follower. In the march forward, 
he had always been first up in the morning, had the men 
in motion before break of day, and generally walked, in 
dress and arms similar to their own, at the head of their 
body ; but now, all his alacrity gone, and with hopes nearly 
blighted, he permitted the whole army to march before him 
(except a rearguard, whom he often compelled to wait for 
him a long time) ; and on coming out of his lodgings, de- 
jectedly mounted a horse, and then rode on, without inter- 
course with his men, to the quarters assigned for him in 
the van. 

The retreat of the army was concerted with so much 
secrecy, and conducted with so much skill, that it was two 
days' march ahead of the royal forces ere the Duke of 
Cumberland could make himself certain of the fact, or take 
measures for a pursuit. When he at length ascertained 
that they were retiring, he changed the defensive system 
which he had hitherto pursued for one of active annoyance. 
Putting himself at the head of his dragoons, and having 
mounted 1000 foot on horses provided by the gentlemen of 
Staffordshire, he started from Meriden Common, a position 
he had taken near Coventry, and, passing by very bad roads 
through Uttoxeter and Cheadle, came to Macclesfield on 
the evening of the 10th, full two days after the insurgents 
had reached the same point. He here received intelligence 
that, after retreating with wonderful expedition through 
Ashbourn, Leek, and Macclesfield, the enemy had just that 
morning left Manchester, and set forward to Wigan. 

The Highlanders managed their retreat in such a manner 
as to unite expedition with perfect coolness, and never to 
allow the enemy to obtain a single advantage. Though on 



170 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

foot, and pursued by cavalry, they kept distinctly ahead of 
all danger or annoyance for twelve days, two of which they 
had spent in undisturbed rest at Preston and Lancaster. 1 
The troops of the duke were reinforced on the 12th by a 
body of horse which General Wade, now with the army in 
the centre of Yorkshire, sent with haste over Blackstone 
Edge to intercept the retiring host, but who only reached 
Preston after it had been several hours evacuated, and in 
time to join the pursuing* force of the Duke of Cumberland. 
After a halt of one day, occasioned by the false alarm of an 
invasion on the southern coast, the pursuing army, amount- 
ing to 3000 or 4000 horse, continued their course from 
Preston, through roads which had been rendered almost im- 
passable, partly by the weather, and partly by the exertions 
of men. Orders had been communicated by the duke to 
the country people to break down bridges, destroy the 
roads, and use all means in their power to retard the insur- 
gent army. 2 But while the hardy mountaineers found 
little inconvenience from either storm in the air or ruts in 
the ground, these very circumstances served materially to 
impede the English dragoons, and to place the two armies 
upon what might be considered a more equal footing than 
they could otherwise have been. 

The Prince, with the main body of his troops, was at Pen- 

1 At Wigan, some fanatic, intending to shoot the Prince, fired at O'Sulli- 
van by mistake. Charles would not allow any harm to be done to the assassin. 
Captain Daniel, who mentions this fact, with a bitter comment on what he 
thought such injudicious clemency, also complains respecting a woman and 
her son who were brought before Charles, accused of murdering one of his 
volunteers at Manchester, and who confessed their crime, but whom he 
would not allow to be punished. 

2 ' The news of the retreat of the invading army had not reached Kendal, 
when, on the market-day, the Duke of Perth drove rapidly up the street, ac- 
companied by an escort of horse. The town and country people instantly 
took it into their heads that the rebels had been defeated, and at once re- 
solved on capturing the duke, in whose defence the escort fired on the popu- 
lace, many of whom had armed themselves with guns. His Grace, putting his 
head out of the carriage window, with much humanity commanded his men 
to " fire high, it being useless to fire on a mob." This thoughtless procedure 
was not unattended with loss of life, and gave rise to a circumstance in- 
volved in future mystery. The duke's servant was knocked off his horse, upon 
which a countryman instantly leaped, and rode off. This was done in the heat 
of the rencontre, and no one had taken notice who the man was, nor was he 
ever discovered : on the horse was a portmanteau, containing a considerable 
sum of money. The servant died of his injuries, and was buried, along with 
some others of his countrymen, in that part of the churchyard next the river ; 
a flat stone, with a suitable inscription, was laid down, commemorative of 
their fate.'— Communication in the Edinburgh Advertiser (newspaper) , Nov. 23, 
1827. See also Scots Magazine, 1745, p. 577- 

The duke was on this occasion endeavouring to reach Scotland with orders, 
preparatory to the arrival of the army. The resistance he met with at Ken- 
dal showed that he could not detach himself far from the army with safety, 
and he therefore proceeded no farther. 



RETREAT TO SCOTLAND. 171 

rith on the evening- of the 17th ; but his rearguard, under 
the command of Lord George Murray, owing* to the break- 
ing down of some ammunition wagons, was this night with 
great difficulty brought only to Shap. The delay thus 
occasioned allowed the lightest of the duke's horse to over- 
take the rear of the retiring army. Early in the morning 
of the 18th, soon after it had commenced its march from 
Shap, some of the English chasseurs were seen hovering on 
the adjoining heights; and about mid-day, as the High- 
landers were approaching the enclosures around Clifton 
Hall, a body of light horse seemed to be forming for attack 
upon an eminence a little way in front. Against these, who 
were merely volunteer militia of the district, Lord George 
Murray ordered the Glengarry clan to go forward; but, 
without waiting for an engagement, they immediately re- 
treated. 

The rearguard consisted of John Roy Stuart's regiment 
of 200 men, of the Glengarry clan, and a few companies 
which attended the ammunition wagons ; but it was rein- 
forced on the present occasion by the Stewarts of Appin and 
Cluny Macpherson's regiment, being about 1000 men in all. 
Lord George, under a deep sense of the importance of his 
trust, was the last man in the line. Anxious to check the 
pursuit, he despatched Stuart forward to Penrith, request- 
ing that 1000 men might be sent to him from the main 
body there stationed. With this force he intended to have 
gained the flank of the duke's army, now approaching 
obliquely from the left, and to have attacked them under 
favour of the approaching night. But Charles returned 
Stuart with an order, requiring him to march with all 
speed forward to Penrith, without taking any offensive 
measures against the duke. This order, proceeding upon a 
general view of what was proper, would have been attended, 
as Lord George well perceived, with injurious effects ; for 
the men could not have retired in the face of the enemy 
without being much exposed. He therefore desired Colonel 
Stuart not to mention the Prince's wishes to any one ; and 
proceeded to make arrangements for giving the enemy the 
necessary check. At the bridge, a little to the south of the 
village of Clifton, where the road passed between a high 
stone-wall surrounding Lord Lonsdale's park and the hedge 
enclosures of Clifton Hall, he placed the Glengarry regi- 
ment and John Roy Stuart's along the wall ; the latter being 
nearest the village, and the Appin and Macpherson regi- 
ments within the opposite enclosures. Soon after sunset, 
the main body of the duke's army, composed exclusively of 



172 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

cavalry, and said to be about 4000 in number, came up and 
formed in two lines on the moor about a mile behind. 

In order to deceive the enemy as to his numbers, Lord 
George made some men pass behind the hedges with the 
colours, and returning secretly, again pass, displaying the 
colours once more, and this several times over. Full of 
anxiety about his critical situation, he passed backwards 
and forwards amongst the men, encouraging them to behave 
with firmness. He then placed himself at the head of the 
Macphersons, with Cluny by his side. In a narrative by 
Cluny, 1 it is stated that he did not ultimately give orders 
for action till he had asked the opinion of the chief, and 
found him willing to make the attack, if ordered. Daylight 
passed away, succeeded by a dark and cloudy night, with 
occasional bursts of moonlight. By one of these transient 
gleams Lord George saw a body of men — dismounted dra- 
goons, or infantry who had resumed their proper mode of 
warfare — coming forward upon the enclosures beyond the 
road. He ordered the two regiments near him to advance, 
in doing which they received a fire from the enemy. At 
this Lord George exclaimed, i Claymore ! J an ordinary war- 
cry among the Highlanders, and rushed on sword in hand. 
The whole left wing, then making a direct and spirited 
attack, forced the dismounted dragoons back to their main 
body with considerable slaughter, and shouted to let the 
right wing know of their success. They then retired in 
order to their original position ; while the Macdonalds, with 
equal intrepidity, repulsed the dragoons opposite to their 
body. A check having thus been given to the pursuing 
army, Lord George drew off his men towards Penrith, 
where they rested and refreshed themselves. 2 The English, 
in their accounts of this fight, allow that they had forty 
private men killed and wounded, and four officers w r ounded : 
they insinuate that the Highland army suffered a much 
greater loss ; but a letter by a person present speaks of only 
five found dead on the field; while the Gazette published by 
the Prince at Glasgow admits the loss of twelve men, who 
had gone too far forward on the moor, and who might have 
been taken prisoners. At an earlier period of the day, 
Lord George Murray had taken the Duke of Cumberland's 
footman, whom the Prince instantly sent back to his 
master. A Mr Hamilton, an officer in the Prince's hussars, 

1 Of which an extract is given by Scott as a note to a chapter of Waverley, 
in the edition of 1829. 

2 a very minute account of the affair at Clifton is given by Lord George 
himself. See Jacobite Memoirs, 64-72. 



RETKEAT TO SCOTLAND. 173 

had been taken, from want of caution, before the skirmish 
by a straggling party. 1 

The whole of the Highland army spent the night of the 
19th of December at Carlisle, where it was thought neces- 
sary, on evacuating the town next morning*, to leave a 
garrison, consisting of the Manchester regiment, some men 
from the Lowland regiments, and a few French and Irish ; 
in all 300. 2 This small garrison, animated with a greater 
share of courage and fidelity to the cause they had em- 
braced than of prudence or foresight, resolved obstinately 
to defend the city, and took every measure for that purpose 
which the time and season would allow. 

Charles left Carlisle on the morning of the 20th, after 
having publicly thanked the garrison for their devoted 
loyalty, and promised to relieve them as soon as he could. 
The men, drawn up to hear his address, saw him depart 
with acclamations, and gazing from the walls, soon beheld 
their comrades draw near the beloved land to which they 
were never to return. The army reached the Esk, which 
forms the boundary of the two kingdoms, about two o'clock 
in the afternoon. The river, usually shallow, was swollen, 
by an incessant rain of several days, to the depth of four 
feet. Yet it was resolved to cross immediately, lest a con- 
tinuation of the rain during the night should render the 
passage totally impracticable. A skilful arrangement was 
made, which almost obviated the dangers of the flood. The 
cavalry was stationed in the river, a few paces above the 
ford, to break the force of the current ; and the infantry 
formed themselves in ranks of ten or twelve abreast, with 
their arms locked in such a manner as to support one 
another against the rapidity of the river, leaving sufficient 
intervals between the successive lines for the water to flow 
through. The whole passed over in perfect safety. Cavalry 
were placed farther down the river, to pick up all who 

1 c An inhabitant of the village of Clifton, named Thomas Savage, was very 
serviceable in giving the English army timely notice of the disposition of the 
insurgents, who had hired all the lodges and outhouses. After the action, 
he joyfully entertained the Dukes of Cumberland, Richmond, and Kingston, 
besides 100 horse, in his own house.' — Bmjse, 127. ' * * At the skirmish on 
Clifton Moor, General Honeywood fell covered with wounds. On the retreat 
of the enemy, the general was carried in a mangled condition to Appleby, 
where, to the surprise of all, he recovered. He was afterwards so much re- 
spected there, from the foregoing circumstances, and became so attached to 
the place, that he was elected one of their members, and continued so to the 
day of his death. Having a vote for the county, it was there I had the 
honour of knowing him, of being shown by him the scars of those mouthed 
wounds he had received, and of hearing from himself the foregoing parti- 
culars.'— Jackson's History of the Scottish Stage, p. 80. 

■ He also left ten out of his thirteen pieces of cannon. 



174 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

might be carried away by the violence of the stream. None 
were lost, except a few girls. The transit of the river occu- 
pied an hour, during which, from the close numbers of the 
men, it appeared to be crossed by a paved street of heads 
and shoulders. When they got to the other side, and began 
to dry themselves at the fires lighted upon the bank for 
that purpose, they were overjoyed at once more finding 
their feet upon their native ground, and for a moment 
forgot the chagrin which had attended their retreat, with 
all depressing anticipations of the future. 

An expedition was thus completed which, for boldness 
and address, is entitled to rank high amongst the most cele- 
brated in ancient and modern times. It lasted six weeks, 
and was directed through a country decidedly hostile to the 
adventurers ; it was done in the face of two armies, each 
capable of utterly annihilating it ; and the weather was 
such as to add a thousand personal miseries to the general 
evils of the campaign. Yet such was the success which will 
sometimes attend the most desperate case, if conducted with 
resolution, that from the moment the inimical country was 
entered, to that in which it was abandoned, only forty men 
were lost, out of nearly 5000, by sickness, marauding, or the 
sword of the enemy. A magnanimity was preserved even 
in retreat beyond that of ordinary soldiers ; and instead of 
flying in wild disorder, a prey to their pursuers, these de- 
sultory bands had turned against and smitten the superior 
army of their enemy, with a vigour which effectually 
checked it. They had carried the standard of Glenfinnin 
a hundred and fifty miles into a country full of foes ; and 
now they brought it back unscathed, through the accumu- 
lated dangers of storm and war. 

In their descent upon England, when, in the height of 
their expectations, private rapine had few charms, the 
Highlanders conducted themselves with tolerable propriety ; 
and as the public money was everywhere raised, they had 
been able to pay for food with some degree of regularity. 
But in their retreat, when their pay was more precarious, 
private property was less respected, though not invaded 
or injured to nearly so great an extent as might have been 
expected. 

The unhappy garrison of Carlisle saw their fortifications 
invested by the whole force of the Duke of Cumberland on , 
the very day following the departure of their fellow-sol- 
diers. They fired upon all who came within reach of their 
guns, and showed an intention of holding out to the last 
extremity. But the duke, having procured cannon from 



RETREAT TO SCOTLAND. 175 

Whitehaven, erected a battery on the 28th, and began to 
play upon the crazy walls of the town and castle. On the 
morning 1 of the 30th a white flag* appeared upon the walls, 
and the governor signified a wish to enter into a capitula- 
tion. The cannon then ceased, and a message was sent by 
Governor Hamilton to the duke, desiring to know what 
terms he would be pleased to give them. His royal high- 
ness replied that the only terms he would or could grant 
were, 6 that they should not be put to the sword, but re- 
served for his majesty's pleasure.' These terms were 
accepted, and the royal army immediately took possession 
of the city and castle, placing all the garrison under a 
strong guard in the cathedral. The fate meted out to them 
will be described in the sequel. 

It was now judged proper that, as the more immediate 
danger from the Highland army was past, the Duke of 
Cumberland should return to London, in order to be of ser- 
vice in repelling the invasion which was still dreaded from 
France on the south coast. He accordingly proceeded 
thither, leaving his troops under the command of General 
Wade and Lieutenant-General Hawley, the last of whom 
was ordered to conduct a portion of the army into Scotland, 
while Wade remained at Newcastle. 

The chevalier meanwhile pursued his march towards the 
north. On crossing the Esk, he divided his army into two 
parties, one of which went by Ecclefechan and Moffat, with 
Lord George Murray and Lords Ogilvie and Nairn. He 
himself led the other, with the Duke of Perth, Lords Elcho 
and Pitsligo, Locheil, Clanranald, Glengarry, and Keppoch. 
He lodged the first night at Annan. Next day, Lord 
Elcho advanced with 400 or 500 men to take possession of 
Dumfries. The rest went forward with himself on the day 
following. Dumfries had reason, on this occasion, for 
alarm, on account of the seizure of the baggage-wagons at 
Lockerby. The clans marched into it as into a town where 
they expected resistance, or at least no kindly reception ; 
and on an idiot being observed with a gun in his hand be- 
hind a gravestone in the churchyard, which they supposed 
he was about to fire upon them, it was with the greatest 
difficulty that the poor creature's life was spared. 1 The 
Prince took up his lodging in what was then the best 
house in the town, being that which is now the Commercial 
Inn, near the centre of the market-place. He had ordered 
the citizens to contribute the sum of £2000 for his use, with 

1 Tradition at Dumfries. 



176 HISTORY OF THE REEELLION OF 1745-6. 

1000 pairs of shoes; some of his men adding, that they 
might consider it well that their town was not laid in ashes. 
So lately as 1836, an aged female lived in Edinburgh who 
recollected the occupation of Dumfries by the Highland 
army, being then seventeen years of age. 1 She lived oppo- 
site to the Prince's lodging, and frequently saw him. In 
her father's house several of the men were quartered, and it 
was her recollection that they greatly lamented the course 
which they had taken, and feared the issue of the expedi- 
tion. The proprietor of the house occupied by the Prince 
was Mr Richard Lowthian, a nonjuror, and proprietor of 
Staffold Hall, in Cumberland. Though well affected to the 
Prince's cause, he judged it prudent not to come into his 
presence, and yet neither did he wish to offend him by the 
appearance of deliberately going out of his way. The 
expedient he adopted in this dilemma was one highly cha- 
racteristic of the time — he got himself filled so extremely 
drunk, that his being kept back from the company of his 
guest was only a matter of decency. His wife, who could 
not well be taxed with treason, did the honours of the house 
without scruple ; and some other Jacobite ladies, particularly 
those of the attainted house of Carnwath, 2 came forward to 
grace his court. When the author was at Dumfries in 1838, 
he saw, in the possession of a private family, one of a set of 
table napkins, of the most beautiful damask, resembling the 
finest satin, which the ladies Dalzell of Carnwath had taken 
to grace the table of the Prince, 3 and which they had kept 
ever after with the care due to the most precious relics. 
The drawing-room in which Charles received company is a 
very handsome one, panelled all round with Corinthian 
pilasters, the capitals of which are touched with dim gold. 
He was sitting here at supper with his officers and other 
friends, when he was told that a messenger had arrived 
with intelligence respecting the enemy. One M'Ghie, a 
painter in Dumfries, and a friend of the insurgents, had 
been imposed upon at Annan with the false news that the 
Duke of Cumberland had already taken Carlisle, and was 
advancing to Dumfries. Charles received this intelligence 
in another room, and soon after returned to his friends with 
a countenance manifestly dejected. The consequence was, 
that he hurriedly left the town next day, with only £1100 

1 Widow Blake was the name of this remarkable person, who died at fully 
the age of 108. She had been the wife of a dragoon in the reign of George II. 

2 Dalzell, Earl of Carnwath, attainted in 1716 ; restored in 1826, in the per- 
son of Robert Alexander Dalzell. 

3 It bore the initials J. D., and the date 1704. 



RETREAT TO SCOTLAND. 177 

of the £2000, but carrying the provost and another gentle- 
man as security for the payment of the remainder. Mrs 
Lowthian received from him, as a token of regard, a pair 
of leather gloves, so extremely fine, that they could be drawn 
through her ring. These, as well as the bed he had slept 
on, were carefully preserved by the family, and are still in 
existence. 1 

On the morning of the 23d the Highland army directed 
its march up Nithsdale, and the chevalier spent the night 
at Drumlanrig, the seat of the Duke of Queensberry. He 
occupied the state-bed, while a great number of his men lay 
upon straw in the great gallery. Before departing next 
day, it must be regretted that the Highlanders took that 
opportunity of expressing their love of King James by 
slashing with their swords a series of portraits representing 
King William, Queen Mary, and Queen Anne, which hung 
in the grand staircase — a present from the last of these sove- 
reigns to James Duke of Queensberry, in consideration of 
his services at the union. 

From Drumlanrig', Charles proceeded through the wild 
pass of Dalveen into Clydesdale, designing to march upon 
Glasgow, though still endeavouring to conceal his inten- 
tions from the members of government at Edinburgh. He 
spent the night in Douglas castle, the residence of the Duke 
of Douglas. He next day proceeded along the uplands of 
Clydesdale towards the western capital, and halted at 
Hamilton, where he lodged in the palace of the Duke of 
Hamilton. He spent the next day in hunting through the 
princely parks attached to that house, shooting* two phea- 
sants, two partridges, and a deer. While there is ample 
evidence, from the account-book of his master-of-household, 2 
that he was generally careful, during his march, to make 
remuneration for his lodging and provision, it would appear 
that at Drumlanrig and Douglas, the proprietors of which 
were noted enemies of his family, he exacted free quarters. 
At Hamilton, the master of which was understood to be 
well affected, there were some small payments; but tradition 
avers that both there and at Douglas the custom of giving 
vails to the servants was neglected. 

It was with great difficulty that, in this last day's march, 
his men were prevented from sacking and burning the vil- 
lage of Lesmahago. During the absence of the army in 
England, the people of this place, whose ancestors had 
distinguished themselves in resisting the house of Stuart 

1 Information from Mr Lowthian Ross of Staffold Hall, and others. 

2 See Jacobite Memoirs. 

VOL. V. L 



178 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

when in power, committed an act of hostility to Charles's 
cause, which was calculated to excite the indignation of the 
whole army to no common degree. The circumstances, as 
gathered from tradition, were as follow : — The youthful 
and gallant Kinlochmoidart, in a journey from the High- 
lands, on his return from making a last appeal to Macleod 
and Macdonald of Sleat, passed through Lesmahago on his 
way to England, and was recognised by a young student 
of divinity named Linning, whose religious prepossessions 
led him to regard the Prince's adherents with no friendly 
eye. As the insurgent gentleman was attended by only a 
single servant, this zealot conceived a design of waylaying 
and capturing him, which he immediately proceeded to put 
in execution. Taking to himself arms, and having roused 
the country people, he set out after the two travellers by a 
path which he knew would enable him to intercept them as 
they proceeded along the road. He came up with them 
upon a waste called Brokencross Moor, within two miles of 
the village, and, showing his arms, commanded them to 
surrender in the name of King' George. Kinlochmoidart's 
servant, on first seeing the rabble at a distance, with their 
old guns and pitchforks, unslung his piece, and proposed to 
arrest their progress by a well-directed brace of bullets. 
But the generous youth resolved rather to surrender at dis- 
cretion, than thus occasion an unnecessary effusion of blood. 
He accordingly gave himself up to the daring probationer, 
who immediately conducted him, under a strong guard, to 
Edinburgh castle, from which he was only removed some 
months afterwards to the shambles of Carlisle. 1 

The city of Glasgow, upon which Charles was now in 
full march, had much greater reason than Dumfries, or 
even Lesmahago, to expect severe treatment from the insur- 
gents; while its wealth gave additional cause for alarm, 
without in the least degree supplying better means of 
defence. This city, newly sprung* into importance, had 
never required nor received the means of defence, but was 
now lying, with its wide-spread modern streets and well- 
stored warehouses, fully exposed to the license of the in- 
vaders. It had distinguished itself, ever since the expulsion 
of the house of Stuart, by its attachment to the new govern- 
ment ; and, since the Highlanders entered England, had, 
with gratuitous loyalty, raised a regiment of 1200 men, to 
aid in suppressing the insurrection. Obnoxious by its prin- 
ciples, and affording such prospects of easy and ample plun- 

1 Kinlochrnoidart's captor was afterwards rewarded by government with an 
appointment to the pulpit of his native parish. 



RETREAT TO SCOTLAND. 179 

der, it was eagerly approached by the predatory bands of 
the chevalier. By one of their most rapid marches, the first 
body entered Glasgow on Christmas-day, and on the follow- 
ing the Prince came up with the rest of the army. It has 
been calculated that, from their leaving Edinburgh, they 
had marched about 580 miles in fifty-six days, many of 
these being days of rest. 

The necessities of the army are described as having been 
at this time greater than at any other period of the cam- 
paign. It was now two months since they had left the 
land of tartan ; their clothes were of course in a most dila- 
pidated condition. The length and precipitancy of their 
late march had destroyed their brogues ; and many of them 
were not only barefooted, but barelegged. Their hair hung 
wildly over their eyes ; their beards were overgrown ; and 
the exposed parts of their limbs were, in the language of 
Dougal Graham, tanned red with the weather. Altogether, 
they had a wayworn, savage appearance, and looked rather 
like a band of outlandish vagrants than a body of efficient 
soldiery. The pressure of want compelled them to take 
every practicable measure for supplying themselves ; and, 
in passing towards Glasgow, they had stripped such natives 
as they met of their shoes and other articles of dress. 

Immediately upon his arrival, Charles took measures for 
the complete refitting of his army, by ordering the magis- 
trates to provide 12,000 shirts, 6000 cloth coats, 6000 pairs 
of stockings, and 6000 pairs of shoes. 1 He is also said to 
have sent for the provost (Buchanan), and sternly demanded 
the names of such as had subscribed for raising troops 
against him, threatening to hang' the worthy magistrate in 
case of refusal. The provost is said to have answered that 
he would name no person but himself, and that he was not 
afraid to die in such a cause. He was forced to pay a fine 
of £500. 2 From the town of Paisley the sum of £500 was 
exacted, and contributions were also raised in Renfrew, and 
other towns near Glasgow. 

Charles took up his residence in what was then considered 
the best house in the city, one belonging to a wealthy mer- 
chant named Glassford, which stood at the west end of the 
Trongate, and was afterwards taken down for the extension 
of that noble street. At his arrival, he is said to have 

1 Inclusive of £5500 paid in September, the exactions from Glasgow 
amounted to £10,000, of which reimbursement was made by parliament in 
1749. 

2 Gentleman's Magazine, January 1746, p. 43. The various authentic anec- 
dotes which show the disinclination of the Prince to strong measures, throw 
a doubt on this tale of the day. 



180 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

caused his men to enter this house by the front gate, go 
out by the back door, and then, making' a circuit through 
some by-lanes, reappear in front of the mansion, as if they 
had been newly arrived. But this ruse, practised in order 
to magnify the appearance of his army, was detected by 
the citizens of Glasgow, whose acute eyes recognised the 
botanical badges of the various clans, as they successively 
reappeared. A careful estimate of his forces, made by the 
friends of government at Glasgow, represented them as 
about 3600 foot and 500 horse. Of the latter, which were 
all much jaded, sixty were employed in carrying the sick ; 
whilst about 600 of the infantry neither had arms, nor 
seemed able to use them. 1 

During his residence in Mr Glassford's house, Charles 
ate twice a day in public, though without ceremony, accom- 
panied by a few of his officers, and waited upon by a small 
number of devoted Jacobite ladies. He also dressed much 
more elegantly here than he had done at any other place 
throughout the campaign. 2 But nothing could make the 
Whigs of Glasgow regard him with either respect or affec- 
tion. Previously hostile to his cause, they were now in- 
censed against him, by his severe exactions upon the public 
purse, and by the private depredations of his men. To 
such a height did this feeling arise, that an insane zealot 
snapped a pistol at him as he was riding along the Salt- 
market. 3 He is said to have admired the regularity and 
beauty of the streets of Glasgow, but to have remarked, 
with bitterness, that nowhere had he found so few friends. 4 
During the whole week he spent in the city, he procured 
no more than sixty recruits — a poor compensation for the 
numerous desertions which now began to take place, in 
consequence of the near approach of his men to their own 
country. 

After having nearly succeeded in refitting his army, he 
held a grand review upon the Green. i We marched out,' 
says Captain Daniel in his memoir of the campaign, 5 c with 
drums beating, colours flying, bagpipes playing, and all 
the marks of a triumphant army, to the appointed ground, 
attended by multitudes of people, who had come from all 
parts to see us, and especially the ladies, who, though for- 
merly much against us, were now charmed by the sight of 
the Prince into the most enthusiastic loyalty. I am some- 

1 Scots Mag. viii. 29. 

2 James Gibb, in the Prince's Household Book, Jacobite Memoirs. 

3 Tradition. 4 Boyse, 132. 
5 Preserved in the archives of Drummond Castle. 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 181 

what at a loss/ continues this devoted cavalier, 'to give a 
description of the Prince as he appeared at the review. 
No object could be more charming*, no personage more 
captivating, no deportment more agreeable, than his at that 
time was ; for, being well mounted and princely attired, 
having all the best endowments of both body and mind, he 
appeared to bear a sway above any comparison with the 
heroes of the last age ; and the majesty and grandeur he 
displayed were truly noble and divine.' It may be worth 
while to contrast with this flattering portraiture the de- 
scription which has been g'iven of Charles by a sober citizen 
of Glasgow. 1 1 managed/ says this person, quoting his 
memory after an interval of seventy years, ' to get so near 
him, as he passed homewards to his lodgings, that I could 
have touched him with my hand ; and the impression which 
he made upon my mind shall never fade as long as I live. 
He had a princely aspect, and its interest was much height- 
ened by the dejection which appeared in his pale, fair coun- 
tenance and downcast eye. He evidently wanted confidence 
in his cause, and seemed to have a melancholy foreboding 
of that disaster which soon after ruined the hopes of his 
family for ever.' 1 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 

The Hielandmen cam owre the hill, 
And owre the knowe, wi' richt gude will, 
Now Geordie's men may brag their fill,. 

For wow hut they were braw, man I 
They had three generals o' the best, 
Wi' lairds and lords, and a' the rest, 
Chiels that were bred to stand the test, 

And couldna rin awa, man ! 

Jacobite Song. 

Having recruited the spirits of his men, and improved 
their appointments, by eight days' residence in Glasgow, 
the Prince departed on the 3d of January, and sent forward 
his troops in two detachments, one to Kilsyth, and the other 
to Cumbernauld. The inhabitants of Edinburgh, who, on 
the return of the Highland army from England, had appre- 
hended a second visit, and who had resolved, in such a case, 

i Attic Stories, 290. 



182 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

to defend the city, now set seriously about preparations for 
a siege. After Charles had left Edinburgh in the beginning" 
of November, the Whig part of the community had gra- 
dually regained courage ; and on the 13th of the month, 
when the insurgents were at the safe distance of Car- 
lisle, the state officers had returned in a triumphant pro- 
cession to their courts and chambers, saluted by a round of 
cannon from the castle, and a most valiant performance 
of Whig tunes upon the music-bells of St Giles. Next 
day, Hamilton's and Gardiner's dragoons, with Price's 
and Ligonier's regiments of foot, boldly took possession of 
the city, probably assured of the safety of the measure by 
their avant-couriers the judges. It had been for some weeks 
the duty of these men, and of the Glasgow regiment of 
volunteers, to form posts at Stirling, and other passes of 
the Forth, in order to prevent troops and stores passing 
southward to the Prince ; but on the arrival of the High- 
land army at Glasgow, they retreated with great precipita- 
tion to Edinburgh (December 26), when it was determined, 
with the assistance of a number of rustic volunteers, 1 and 
the wreck of the Edinburgh regiment, to hold out the city 
at all hazards against the approaching insurgents. Their 
courage fortunately did not require to be put to so severe 
a proof; for, ere the Highlanders had left Glasgow, the 
English army, beginning to arrive, strengthened the city 
beyond all danger. 

The command of the army, in the absence of the Duke 
of Cumberland, had been bestowed upon Lieutenant-General 
Henry Hawley, an officer of some standing, but ordinary 
abilities; who, having charged in the right wing of the 
king's army at Sheriffmuir, where the insurgents were re- 
pulsed with ease by the cavalry, entertained a confident 
notion that he would beat the whole of Prince Charles's 
army with a trifling force, and did not scruple to stigmatise 
the conduct of those who had hitherto been worsted by the 
Highlanders as rank pusillanimity. It happened, in his 
approach to Edinburgh, that Hamilton's and Gardiner's 
dragoons, coming out to meet and congratulate him on his 
accession to the command, encountered him near Preston, 
the scene of their recent disgrace ; which being pointed out 
to him, he sharply commanded the men to sheathe their 
swords, and see to use them better in the campaign about 

1 Of these the congregations which had recently seceded from the Kirk of 
Scotland, and who are now known hy the name of the Associate Synod, formed 
a conspicuous portion— carrying colours on which was painted, * For Religion, 
the Covenants, King, Kingdoms.' 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 183 

to ensue than they had hitherto done. 1 Little did Hawley 
anticipate what a short week was to bring" about. 

The march of the English army was facilitated by the 
people of the Merse, Teviotdale, and Lothian, who brought 
horses to transport the baggage, and provisions to entertain 
the men. At Dunbar, at Aberlady, and other places, they 
were feasted by the gentlemen of the district. 2 The loyal 
part of the inhabitants of Edinburgh beheld the arrival 
of this army with satisfaction, and entered into an asso- 
ciation to provide them with blankets. The city was also 
illuminated in honour of the occasion ; when a great num- 
ber of windows belonging to recusant Jacobites, and to 
houses which happened to be unoccupied, were broken by 
the mob. 

In his march from Glasgow, Prince Charles slept the 
first night at the mansion of Kilsyth, which belonged to a 
forfeited estate, and was now in the possession of Mr Camp- 
bell of Shawfield. The steward had been previously ordered 
to provide for the Prince's reception, and told that all his 
expenses would be accounted for. He had accordingly 
provided everything suitable for the entertainment of his 
Royal Highness and suit. Next morning, however, on pre- 
senting his bill, he was told that it should be allowed to 
him on his accounting (after the Restoration) for the rents 
of the estate, and that, in the meantime, he must be con- 
tented that the balance was not immediately struck and 
exacted. 

On the succeeding day Charles proceeded to Bannock- 
burn House, where he was a welcome guest, this house 
being, as already mentioned, the residence of Sir Hugh 
Paterson, one of the most zealous of his friends. His troops 
lay this evening in the villages of Bannockburn, Denny, 
and St Ninians, while Lord George Murray occupied the 
town of Falkirk with the advanced guard of the army. In 
order to employ the time till he should be joined by his 
northern allies, Charles now resolved to reduce Stirling, 
which, commanding the principal avenue to the Highlands, 
had long been felt as an annoying barrier to his proceed- 
ings, and to subjugate which would have given an addi- 
tional lustre to his arms. 

Stirling, then a town of four or five thousand inhabitants, 
was imperfectly surrounded by a wall, and quite incapable 
of holding out against the insurgents ; yet, by the insti- 
gation of the governor of the castle, who had resolved to 

1 Hist. Reb. by an impartial hand, 134. 2 Scots Magazine, viii. 32. 



184 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

die before surrendering his charge, an attempt was made 
to defend it. A small body of militia, consisting* chiefly of 
the townsmen, was provided with arms from the castle; 
and the Reverend Ebenezer Erskine, founder of a well- 
known sect, and who was a clergyman in Stirling, did all 
he could to inspire them with courage, and even, it is said, 
assumed an active command in their ranks. By means of 
these men, the wretched defences of the town, which con- 
sisted on one entire side of only garden walls, were pro- 
vided with a sort of guard, which Governor Blakeney 
endeavoured to animate by an assurance that, even in case 
of the worst, he would keep an open door for them in the 
castle. 

On Sunday, the 5th of January, the town was invested 
by the insurgents, and about nine o'clock that evening a 
drummer approached the east gate, beating his instrument 
in the manner which indicates a message. The sentinels,. 
ignorant of the forms of war, fired several shots at this 
messenger, upon which he found himself obliged to throw 
down his drum and take to his heels. The garrison then 
towed the deserted instrument in over the walls as a 
trophy. 

On Monday, the insurgents having raised a battery 
within musket-shot of the town, and sent a more deter- 
mined message to surrender, the magistrates implored a 
respite till next day at ten o'clock, which was granted. The 
whole of Tuesday was occupied in deliberations, and in 
adjusting the terms of surrender. The town, however, 
being stimulated that evening- by the discharge of twenty- 
seven shots from the battery, a capitulation was concluded 
next morning, by which it was agreed to deliver up the 
town, under assurance of protection for the lives and pro- 
perty of the townsmen, whose arms, moreover, were per- 
mitted to be restored to the castle. The insurgents entered 
the town about three in the afternoon. 

It now becomes necessary to advert to the transactions 
which had been taking place in the north of Scotland dur- 
ing the absence of the army in England. It will be recol- 
lected that Inverness was the point where President Forbes 
and the Earl of Loudoun proposed to rendezvous such of 
the Highlanders as they could induce to appear in arms 
for the government. Up to the middle of November, only 
live of the companies (which were to consist of 100 men 
each) had been mustered there. In the course of the few 
ensuing weeks, eighteen of the twenty which were contem- 
plated had been assembled, four of them being the followers 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 185 

or tenants of the Laird of Macleod, two the Macdonalds of 
Sleat, two the Mackenzies of Kintail, two the Earl of Suther- 
land's men, two the Mackays, and of the Macleods of 
Assynt, the Rosses, the Grants, and Mackenzies of Lewis, 
one each, while one company had heen raised in the town 
of Inverness. The primary cause of the mustering* of these 
men for the government was simply that such was the 
will of their respective superiors. The men themselves, in 
general, were inclined to the other side, as indeed were the 
Highland people at large, with the exception only of a few 
chiefs, most of whom acted under reasons of mere policy. 
It was only by force of the clan-feeling of obedience to the 
chief, that the men in general were brought to serve King 
George. And even this powerful feeling did not in all in- 
stances prevail. For example, when the Laird of Macleod 
summoned his chief tacksmen or tenants to meet at Dun- 
vegan, each with his quota of men, in order to go to the 
muster at Inverness, Macleod of Bernera, one of the prin- 
cipal men amongst them, w T rote to him in the following, or 
similar terms : — i My dear laird, none of your clan would 
be more ready than I to attend your summons upon most 
occasions. I send you the men required, to whose service 
you are entitled ; but, for myself, I go where a higher duty 
calls me.' And Bernera joined the Prince, with whom he 
continued to the end of the campaign, his own son being 
an officer in one of the laird's independent companies. 1 

As another illustration of the feeling which animated 
the dependents of the well-affected Highland proprietors, 
a body of Kintail Mackenzies were brought down by their 

1 Information from Sir William Macleod Bannatyne, who, being cousin- 
german both to young Clanranald and Mr Macleod of Muiravonside (Charles's 
envoy to Skye) , possessed much accurate knowledge respecting the transac- 
tions of this period, to which his own memory almost reached.* With refer- 
ence to Bernera, Sir William added a curious anecdote, which was thus 
transcribed for me by my late amiable friend Mr Donald Gregory, author of 
a valuable historical work on the Highlands :— * Many years after the rebel- 
lion, an action was raised before the Court of Session, at the instance of the 
town of Paisley, against Secretary Murraj r , for the amount of a contribution 
imposed on the town, and received by the secretary on the Prince's behoof. 
While the judges were deliberating on this case, Bernera, in company with 
Sir W. M. B., entered the court. Lord Karnes was speaking in his usual jocular 
way. "My lords," says he, " before proceeding to the merits of this cause, 
we should ascertain the proper designation of the defender. It appears to 
me that he should be styled Mr John Murray, secretary to Charles Edward 
Stuart, the leader of certain Highland banditti who infested this country in 
1745." It may be supposed that Bernera, who was himself one of the banditti, 
did not listen very patiently to this character of his comrades. Clenching his 
fist, he said to his companion, " If I had yon fellow anywhere than where he 
is now, I would teach him to call better men than himself banditti ! " ' 

* Sir William died November 1833, aged above ninety. 



186 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

chief, the Earl of Seaforth, to Brahan Castle, under pretence 
that his lordship's estates thereabouts were in danger from 
Lord Lovat, the real object being to draw them on to appear 
for the government, or at least to prevent them from joining 
the insurgent army. The men, at length penetrating the 
design, or at least thinking themselves deceived, went home, 
saying ( that they knew but one king, and if they were 
not at liberty to fight for him, they would do it for no 
other.' 1 It may thus be readily guessed that the troops 
gathered by Lord Loudoun were not likely, on a fair trial, 
to yield very hearty or effective service to the government. 
At the same time, it was of importance to the government 
that so many men should be engaged, however nominally, 
in its behalf, who might have otherwise been fighting under 
the insurgent standard. 

The attention of Loudoun and the president was called 
chiefly to three points : the state of Fort Augustus under 
an investment by the Master of Lovat, the machinations of 
old Lovat himself, and some late proceedings in the counties 
of Aberdeen and Banff. The earl marched with a party 
(December 3) to Fort Augustus, which he easily relieved. 
He returned to Inverness on the 8th, after giving the people 
of Stratherrick (a district belonging to Lovat) a strong hint 
of what his troops would do to their country if they joined 
the insurgents. Allowing his men a single day's rest, he 
set out on the 10th for Castle Downie or Beaufort, the resi- 
dence of Lord Lovat, to obtain the best satisfaction he could 
for the peaceable behaviour of such of the Frasers as had 
not yet risen. Lovat, still maintaining a fair face, promised 
to collect the arms of his clan for the earl, and, as a pledge 
for the fulfilment of his promise, agreed to accompany 
Lord Loudoun to Inverness. There the earl waited with 
patience till the appointed day, when, finding that the old 
chief was dallying with him, he clapped a guard upon his 
lodgings. Lovat, nevertheless, escaped by a back door 
during the night, being carried off upon men's shoulders. 
This was a perplexing event, for it obliged the earl to keep 
a large portion of his troops at Inverness, to watch the 
further proceedings of Lovat, while they were much needed 
in another quarter, to which our attention is now to be 
turned. 

On the departure of the Highland army from Edinburgh, 
Lord Lewis Gordon had returned to that district in Banff 

1 Paper by James Mackenzie, writer in Edinburgh (a native of Orkney), 
in Bishop Forbes's Papers [Lyon in Mourning, MS.], and attested by tbe 
bishop to be ' true and exact.' 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 187 

and Aberdeenshire over which his family had for centuries 
exercised almost unlimited control. There he busied him- 
self for some weeks in raising men for the Prince's service, 
every landed proprietor being* forced to furnish an able- 
bodied man, or £5 sterling, for every hundred Scots of his 
valued rent. He thus easily completed a regiment of two 
battalions, one of which he placed under the command of 
Gordon of Abbachy, the other under James Moir of Stoney- 
wood. He also gathered a considerable sum of money. All 
this time his brother, the Duke of Gordon, kept up a fair 
appearance with the government. To put an end to the 
recruiting and exactions of Lord Lewis, the Laird of 
Macleod was despatched from Inverness on the 10th of 
December with his 500 clansmen, followed closely by 200 
more under Major Monro of Culcairn, and soon after rein- 
forced by 500 men under the Laird of Grant. An insurgent 
party, which had kept a post on the Spey, retired as he ap- 
proached ; and Lord Lewis, falling back on Aberdeen, called 
forward to that place a number of men who had been raised 
in the counties of Forfar and Kincardine, together with 
some of Lord John Drummond's French troops recently 
landed at Montrose, and 300 Farquharsons under Farquhar- 
son of Monaltrie. In all, his lordship had about 1200 men. 
Meanwhile, the Laird of Grant, under some apprehension 
of danger to his own country, went home with his men. 
Culcairn, with his two companies, took post at Old Meldrum ; 
and Macleod, with only his 500 clansmen, advanced to In- 
verury, twelve miles from Aberdeen. Lord Lewis no sooner 
heard of this last incautious movement, than he marched 
from Aberdeen (December 23), and that afternoon, in the 
twilight, fell unexpectedly, with all his strength, upon the 
Macleods at Inverury. There being only 300 in the village 
against four times their number (for 200 were cantoned in 
the neighbourhood), and having had no preparation or 
warning, the Skye chief was in a situation of no small peril, 
more particularly as his men were not over-zealous in the 
cause. He quickly got them together, and, if we are to 
believe the government account, made a stand for about 
twenty minutes, fighting by moonlight. Their shot being 
at last expended, they retired with precipitation ; nor did 
their retreat stop till they had got to Elgin. 1 Few were 

i ' When he [Macleod] endeavoured to rally them at Elgin, they kept him 
in mind how he had already deceived them, by making them believe they. 
were to serve the Young Man, when he first brought them out of the island ; 
and afterwards how, to hold them together, at Inverness, he had dissembled 
with them, as if he always meant to let them follow their own inclinations ; 



188 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

killed in this skirmish; but Lord Lewis took forty-one 
prisoners, among* whom were Mr Gordon, younger of 
Xrdoch, Forbes of Echt, Maitland of Pitrichie, and Mr 
John Chalmers, one of the professors of Aberdeen univer- 
sity, and remarkable as the first publisher of a newspaper 
north of the Forth. 1 

Lord Lewis thereafter conducted his forces to Perth, 
where Lord Strathallan already had a considerable body of 
troops assembled, including several hundreds of the Fra- 
sers, under the Master of Lovat, the Mackintoshes, 400 in 
number, a well-affected part of the clan Mackenzie, various 
recruits for the regiments in the south, some low-country 
men, and the rest of the troops of Lord John Drummond. 
There was also a small party of Clanranald Macdonalds, 
who had come as a convoy with a considerable quantity of 
treasure, recently landed from a Spanish vessel in the island 
of Barra. The Mackintoshes had been raised under some- 
what remarkable circumstances. The country of this clan 
was in Badenoch, not far from Inverness. 'The chief, or 
laird, usually called Mackintosh of Mackintosh, was, or 
affected to be, loyal to the existing sovereign, and personally 
appeared in arms on that side. At the same time his wife, a 
young woman of high spirit and resolution, raised the clan 
for the chevalier, and adding to it the 300 Farquharsons just 
mentioned, formed a very good regiment, which was now- 
ready for active service. The strange proceedings of this 
lady caused her to be distinguished by the jocular appella- 
tion of Colonel Anne. It is said that, at a subsequent part 
of the campaign, Mackintosh himself, being taken in the 
capacity of a loyal militia captain by a party of the insur- 
gents, was actually brought as a prisoner into the presence 
of his wife, who was then acting a semi-military part in the 
chevalier's army. She said, with military laconism, l Your 
servant, captain ! ' to which he replied, with equal brevity, 
6 Your servant, colonel ! ? 2 Into such strange relations are 
the various parts of society apt to be thrown by a civil war. 

It will be recollected that Charles had sent Maclachlan of 

till at last, having led them to Inverury, a just dispersion (said they) had there 
befallen them for his perfidiousness to the Young Man. And yet (they told 
him), would he hut still return to his duty, they would not so much as look 
home, for haste to go with him ; whereas, if he continued ohstinate, they 
would leave him to a man ; which they did accordingly.' — James Mackenzie's 
paper, as be/ore quoted. 

1 The Aberdeen Journal, which still exists under the charge of Mr Chal- 
mers's grandson. 

2 Letter of the late Bishop Mackintosh, MS., in possession of the author. 
Lady Mackintosh was a daughter of Farquharson of Invercauld, a friend of 
tne government. 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 189 

Maclachlan from Carlisle, to urge Lord Strathallan to for- 
ward to him all the men he had assembled at Perth. His 
lordship, for what reason does not plainly appear, did not 
conceive it expedient to obey this order : perhaps he at first 
thought his forces too small, and afterwards the presence 
of a body of government troops at Stirling might seem a 
sufficient obstacle. The Highlanders, burning to be en- 
gaged in the active service of the Prince, urged him to 
allow them to march ; but in vain. They would have gone 
without his permission ; but they had no money, and many 
of those lately come down from the hills wanted arms. 
Lord Strathallan had possession of money, arms, ammuni- 
tion, and stores of all kinds ; and his views were supported 
by the Lowlanders and French. The Highland officers 
formed various projects for getting at the money and arms, 
in order to proceed to the south, for, under the sense of so 
high a duty, they were not disposed to be very scrupulous. 
Furious disputes had taken place between them and Lord 
Strathallan's supporters, and a battle seemed inevitable 
betwixt the two parties, when all was settled by the receipt 
of a letter from the Prince, dated at Dumfries, and con- 
veyed by Rollo of Powhouse, commanding them to hold 
themselves in readiness to join the army, which was now 
marching to Glasgow, whence they should receive further 
orders. 1 Charles was now joined at Stirling by these 
troops, who brought with them a great quantity of stores 
landed from France, and the Spanish money which had 
been debarked at the island of Barra. 

The army, thus strengthened, broke ground before Stir- 
ling Castle on the 10th, and summoned Governor Blakeney 
to surrender. That officer gave for answer that he would 
defend his post to the last extremity, being determined to 
die, as he had lived, a man of honour. They first attempted 
to convert a large old building at the head of the town, 
called Marrh Work, into a battery ; but finding themselves 
to be there peculiarly exposed to the fire of the garrison, 
they were soon obliged to look about for new ground. 

On the day that Charles thus commenced the siege of 
Stirling, Hawley had been joined at Edinburgh by all the 
divisions of the army whicK he could immediately expect. 
As his force consisted of- nearly eignt thousand men, of 
whom thirteen hundred were cavalry, he considered him- 
self fully a match for the insurgents, and now determined 
to offer them battle, though he knew that there were several 

i Home, iii. 139. 



190 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

other regiments on the march to Scotland, which would 
soon join him. 1 He was, perhaps, induced to take this step, 
partly by observing that the Highland force was every day 
increasing, and partly by a wish to relieve the garrison of 
Stirling ; but a blind confidence in the powers of the army, 
especially the dragoons, and an ardent desire of distinguish- 
ing himself, must certainly be allowed to have chiefly insti- 
gated him to the measure. He had often been heard to 
reflect upon the misconduct of Cope (who, in his turn, had 
taken bets, it is said, to a large amount, that this new com- 
mander would have no better success than himself). He 
therefore went on to battle under a kind of infatuation, of 
which the proper effects were soon seen. 

On the morning of the 13th, -five regiments, together with 
the Glasgow militia, and Hamilton's and Ligonier's (late 
Gardiner's) dragoons, left Edinburgh, under the command 
of Major-General Huske, and reached Linlithgow that 
evening. A party of Highlanders under Lord George 
Murray, who had advanced thither, retired before them to 
Falkirk. Next day three other regiments marched west- 
wards to Borrowstounness, to be ready to support General 
Huske in case of an engagement ; on the following morn- 
ing, the remainder of the army, with the artillery, pursued 
the same route. Hawley himself marched on the 16th, 
with Cobham's dragoons, who had just come up. The 
army was accompanied by a north of England squire 
named Thornton, whose zealous loyalty had induced him 
to raise a band called the Yorkshire Blues, who were main- 
tained and commanded by himself. 

The whole of this well-disciplined and well-appointed 
force encamped to the north-west of Falkirk, upon the same 
field where, four centuries before, Sir John de Graham and 
Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, the friends of Wallace, had 
testified their patriotism in the arms of death. 

On the morning of the 17 th, Lieutenant-Colonel John 
Campbell (afterwards Duke of Argyle), who had been 
hitherto exerting himself to keep the West Highlands quiet, 
joined the English camp with upwards of a thousand 
of his clan. 

General Hawley was this morning spared the necessity 
of marching forward to raise the siege of Stirling, by intel- 
ligence that the Highlanders were in motion ; for Prince 

1 Six thousand Hessians, who were compelled to serve the king of Great 
Britain in terms of a recent treaty, and who had embarked at Williamstadt 
on the 1st of January, were also at this time hourly expected to enter the 
Firth of Forth. 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 191 

Charles, learning the near approach of the English general, 
had resolved, with his usual ardour, to meet him half way, 
and was now drawing out his men, as for a review, upon 
the Plean Moor, two miles to the east of Bannockburn, and 
about seven from Falkirk. The English army did not, 
therefore, strike their camp, but judged it necessary to re- 
main where they were till the intentions of the enemy 
should be revealed. 

When the English lay upon the field of Falkirk, and the 
Highlanders were drawn up upon the Plean Moor, their 
respective camp lights were visible to each other over the 
level tract of country which intervened. Betwixt the two 
armies lay the straggling remains of the once extensive 
Torwood, in whose gloomy recesses Wallace used to find a 
refuge suited to his depressed fortunes. 

On this occasion, as on almost all others throughout the 
campaign, Charles found himself able to out-general the old 
and experienced officers whom the British government had 
sent against him. Though he had drawn out his men, and 
seemed ready for an immediate encounter with Hawley's 
army, he kept his real intentions a secret from even his 
own officers, making the main body believe that the evolu- 
tions in which they were engaged were only those of an 
ordinary review j 1 and it was not till mid-day that, having 
suddenly called a council of war, he announced his deter- 
mination to march in the direction of the enemy. 

The conduct of Hawley displayed as much of negligence 
on this occasion as that of Charles displayed calculation 
and alacrity. He was inspired, as already said, with a 
lofty contempt for the Highlanders, or ' Highland militia/ 
as he himself was pleased to call them. Having come to 
drive the wretched rabble from Stirling, he could not con- 
ceive the possibility of their coming to attack him at Fal- 
kirk. Being apprised, on the 16th, by a Mr Roger, who 
had passed through the Highland army, and conversed 
with some of the officers, that there was a proposal amongst 
them to march next day against him, he treated the in- 
formant with rudeness, and contented himself with giving* 
vent to a vain expression of defiance. 2 On the morning of 
the day of battle, such was his continued security, that he 
obeyed an insidious invitation from the Countess of Kil- 
marnock, by retiring* from the camp to breakfast with her at 
Callander House, although quite aware of that lady's rela- 
tionship to an insurgent chief, and even perhaps of her own 

1 Chevalier Johnstone's Memoirs. 

2 MS. in possession of Mr David Constable. 



192 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

notorious attachment to the cause of Prince Charles. The 
ruse of the countess was attended with success. She was a 
woman of fine person and manners ; and Hawley, com- 
pletely fascinated, spent the whole of this important fore- 
noon in her company, without casting 1 a thought upon his 
army. 

Charles, observing the wind to come from the south-west, 
directed the march of his men towards a piece of ground 
considerably to the right of Hawley's camp, in order that, . 
in the ensuing encounter, his troops might have that 
powerful ally to support them in rear. He took care, at 
the same time, to despatch Lord John Drummond, with 
nearly all the horse, towards the other extremity of Haw- 
ley's lines, so as to distract and engage the attention of 
the enemy. In order to produce still further uncertainty 
among the English regarding his intentions, he caused a 
body to retire to Stirling, with colours displayed in their 
sight ; and upon the Plean Moor, which was thus entirely 
deserted, he left his great standard flying, as if that had 
still been his head-quarters. 

Perplexed by the various objects which they saw dis- 
persed over the country, the English army remained in 
their camp, not altogether unapprehensive of an attack, 
but yet strongly disposed, like their commander, to scout 
the idea that the Highlanders would venture upon so daring 
a measure. While they were still ignorant of the stealthy 
advance which Charles was making, a countryman, who 
had perceived it, came running into the camp, and ex- 
claimed, ' Gentlemen, what are you about ? The High- 
landers will be immediately upon you ! ' Some of the offi- 
cers cried out, ' Seize that rascal — he is spreading a false 
alarm ! ' But they were speedily assured of the truth of the 
report by two of their number, who had mounted a tree, 
and, through a telescope, discovered the Highlanders in 
motion. The alarm was immediately communicated to a 
commanding officer, who, in his turn, lost no time in con- 
veying it to Callander House. Hawley received the intelli- 
gence with the utmost coolness, and contented himself with 
ordering that the men might put on their accoutrements, 
but said that they need not get under arms. The troops 
obeyed the order, and proceeded to take their dinner. 

It was between one and two o'clock that several gentle- 
men, volunteer attendants on the camp, coming in upon the 
spur, gave final and decisive intelligence of the intention 
of the enemy. They reported that they had seen the lines 
of the Highland infantry evolve from behind the Torwood, 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 193 

and cross the Carron by the Steps of Dunipace. The drums 
instantly heat to arms ; an urgent message was despatched 
for the recreant Hawley ; and the lines were formed, in 
front of the camp, by officers on duty. The negligence of 
their general was now bitterly reflected on by the men, many 
of whom seemed impressed with the idea that he had sold 
them to the enemy. 

The last message which had been despatched to Callander 
succeeded in bringing Hawley to a sense of the exigency of 
his affairs, and he now came gallopping up to his troops, 
with his head uncovered, and the appearance of one who 
has abruptly left an hospitable table. The sky, which had 
hitherto been calm and cloudless, became at this moment 
overcast with heavy clouds, and a high wind beginning to 
blow from the south-west, foreboded a severe storm of rain. 

While they stood in the position already mentioned, 
Charles was eagerly leading forward his desultory bands to 
a wild upland of irregular surface called Falkirk Muir, 
two miles south-west of the English camp. In crossing 
the Carron at Dunipace Steps, and thus making for a 
rising ground where he could overlook Hawley's position, 
he precisely acted over again the course he had pur- 
sued four months before, in crossing the Esk at Mussel- 
burgh, and ascending the heights above Cope's station at 
Preston ; and it may be added, that there is a remarkable 
resemblance in the corresponding localities. Hawley, on 
learning the direction Charles was taking, seems to have 
suspected that he was in danger of becoming the victim 
of a similar course of measures to that which occasioned 
the defeat of Cope ; and having the bad effect of that 
general's caution before his eyes, he appears to have imme- 
diately adopted the resolution of disputing the high ground. 
He therefore gave a hasty command to the dragoons to 
march towards the top of the hill, in order, if possible, to 
anticipate the Highlanders ; the foot he commanded to 
follow at quick pace, with their bayonets inserted in the 
musket. To this precipitate measure, by which he placed 
his army on ground he had never seen, and which was 
extremely unfit for the movements of regular troops, while 
it was proportionally advantageous for the Highlanders, 
the disasters of the day are in a great measure to be attri- 
buted. 

The dragoons gallopped up a narrow way at the east end 
of Bantaskine Park. The foot followed, with a show of 
promptitude and courage ; and the artillery, consisting of 
ten pieces, came last of all, driven by a band of Falkirk 

VOL. V. M 



194 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

carters, who, with their horses, had been hastily pressed 
into King George's service that forenoon — for it was not till 
some time after this memorable campaign that the British 
artillery was drawn by horses and men regularly appointed 
for _ the purpose. Whether from accident, or from the 
design of the drivers, who were ill-affected to their duty, 
the artillery stuck in a swampy place at the end of the 
loan, beyond all power of extrication ; and the drivers then 
cut the traces of their horses, and scampered back to Fal- 
kirk. The sullen south-west, against which the army was 
marching, now let forth its fury full in their faces, blind- 
ing them with rain, and rendering" the ascent of the hill 
doubly painful. Still they struggled on, encouraged by 
the voice and gesture of their general, whose white un- 
covered head was everywhere conspicuous as he rode about, 
and who seemed ardently desirous to recover the effects of 
his negligence. 

Before Hawley commenced this unlucky march, Charles 
had entered Falkirk Muir at another side, and was already 
ascending the hill. His troops marched in two parallel 
columns, about two hundred paces asunder; that which was 
nearest the king's army consisting of the clans which had 
been in England, and the other comprising all the late 
accessions, with some low-country regiments. The former 
was designed to become the front line in ranking up against 
the enemy. 

A sort of race now commenced between the dragoons and 
clans towards the top of the moor : each apparently esteem- 
ing the preoccupation of that ground as of the most essential 
importance to the event. The clans attained the eminence 
first, and the dragoons were obliged to take up somewhat 
lower ground, where they were prevented from coming into 
direct opposition with the Highlanders by a morass on their 
left. 

The three Macdonald regiments, according to the right 
of the great Clan Colla to that distinguished position, 
marched at the head of the first column, with the intention 
of forming eventually the right wing of the army in battle 
array; but, on the present occasion, Glencairnaig's minor 
regiment of Macgregors, exerting greater speed in the race 
with Hawley's dragoons, and being therefore the first to 
reach the top of the hill, took that post of honour, which 
they retained throughout the ensuing conflict. The first 
line of the insurgent army was therefore formed by the 
following regiments, reckoning from right to left : — Mac- 
gregor, Keppoch, Clanranald, Glengarry, Appin ; Cameron, 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 195 

the Frasers under the Master of Lovat, and the Macpher- 
sons under Cluny their chief. At the right extremity 
Lord George Murray had the chief command, fighting, as 
usual, on foot. On the left there was no general com- 
mander, unless it was Lord John Drummond, whose atten- 
tion, however, was chiefly directed to his French regiment 
in the rear. The second line was chiefly composed of low- 
country regiments, which stood in the following order : — 
Athole, Ogilvie, Gordon, Farquharson, Cromarty, and the 
French. The Prince stood on an eminence 1 behind the 
second line, with the horse ; having been implored by the 
army not to hazard his person by that active collision with 
the enemy for which, as at Preston, he had expressed his 
ardent desire. 

Opposite to the Highland army thus disposed, but rather 
inclining to the north, on account of the morass and the 
declivity, the English foot were drawn up also in two lines, 
with the horse in front, and a reserve in the rear. The first 
line comprised the following regiments from right to left : — 
Wolfe, Cholmondley, the Scots Royals, Price, and Ligonier ; 
the second, Blakeney, Monro, Fleming, Barrel, and Bat- 
tereau. The reserve was composed of the Glasgow regi- 
ment, Howard's and the Argyle militia. 

Falkirk Muir, an upland now covered with thriving 
farms, and intersected by the Union Canal and Edinburgh 
and Glasgow railway, was then a rough tract, irregular 
in its surface, without rising into peaks, and bearing no 
vegetation but heath. It was upon its broad ridge, at the 
top, that the two armies were disposed, the Highlanders 
extending more to the south, and occupying, as already 
stated, somewhat higher ground. The country was not 
encumbered by enclosures of any kind ; but a sort of hollow, 
or dean, as it is called in Scotland, commenced nearly oppo- 
site to the centre of the Highland lines, and ran down 
between the two armies, gradually widening towards the 
plain below, and opening up at one place into a spacious 
basin. By this ravine, which was too deep to be easily 
passed from either side, two-thirds of the English were sepa- 
rated from about one-half of the Highland army. Owing 
to the convexity of the ground, the wings of both armies were 
invisible to each other. 

To conclude this account of the disposition of the English, 
the Argyle Highlanders and Ligonier's regiment were 
stationed in the hollow just mentioned; the Glasgow regi- 

1 Still popularly termed Charlie's Hill, and now covered with wood. 



196 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

ment was posted at a farm-house behind the other extre- 
mity; and the horse stood a little in advance of the foot, 
opposite to the right wing of the Highlanders, without any 
portion of the ravine intervening. General Hawley com- 
manded in the centre, Brigadier Cholmondley on the left, 
and Major-General Huske on the right. The horse were 
immediately under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel 
Ligonier, who, stationed on the left with his own regiment 
(lately Gardiner's), had Cobham's and Hamilton's on his 
right, and personally stood almost opposite to Lord George 
Murray. 

In numbers, the two armies were nearly equal, both 
amounting to about 8000; and as they were alike unsup- 
plied by artillery (for the Highlanders had also left theirs 
behind), there could scarcely have been a better match, so 
far as strength was concerned. But the English had dis- 
advantages of another sort, such as the unfitness of the 
ground for their evolutions, the interruption given to so 
much of their lines by the ravine, the comparative lowness 
of their ground; and their having the wind and rain in 
their faces. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 

Says brave Locheil, ' Pray have we won ? 
I see no troop, I hear no gun.' 
Says Drummond, ' Faith, the battle's done, 
I know not how or why, man.' 

Jacobite Song. 

It was near four o'clock, and the storm was rapidly 
bringing on premature darkness, when Hawley ordered his 
dragoons to advance, and commence the action. As already 
mentioned, he had an idea that the Highlanders would not 
stand against the charge of a single troop of horse, much 
less did he expect them to resist three regiments, amounting 
to 1300 men. The result showed that he was mistaken. 

These regiments, after making several feints to draw the 
fire of the Highlanders, in order then to rush in upon them, 
moved slowly forward ; the Highland right wing, in like 
manner, advancing to meet them, under Lord George 
Murray, who made the most anxious efforts to keep it in 
line, and to restrain all firing till the proper moment. 



THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 197 

There was the more reason for delay on the part of the 
Highland right wing, as the left was not yet fully formed. 
After the two parties had confronted each other the better 
part of a quarter of an hour, the dragoons went on at a full 
trot, in good order, till within pistol-shot of the High- 
landers. Then Lord George gave orders to fire, which was 
done with such execution, that the dragoon regiments were 
instantly broken. Ligonier's and Hamilton's, the cravens 
of Preston, fled backwards right over the left wing of their 
own foot, who lay upon their faces ; as they went, some were 
heard crying, 'Dear brethren, we shall all be massacred 
this day ! ?1 Cobham's did little better, for it fled down the 
ravine, receiving a volley from the Highland line as it went 
along. The Highlanders had fired so near, and with such 
precision, as to bring many to the ground, including several 
officers of distinction. One small party of these dragoons 
acted with courage. It was kept together, and led to the 
charge, by Lieutenant-Colonel Whitney, a brave officer, 
who had remained behind his retreating* cavalry at Preston, 
thoug'h wounded in the sword-arm. As he was going for- 
ward at the head of his little troop to the attack, he recog- 
nised John Roy Stuart, a former friend, and cried out, 
'Ha! are you there? We shall soon be up with you.' 
Stuart exclaimed in reply, 'You shall be welcome when 
you come — you shall have a warm reception!' 2 Almost 
at that moment the unfortunate leader received a shot, 
which tumbled him lifeless from the saddle. His party 
rushed resistlessly through the front line of the enemy, 
trampling down all that opposed them. But their 
bravery was unavailing. The Highlanders, taught to 
fight in all postures, and under every variety of circum- 
stances, though thrown upon their backs beneath the feet 
of the cavalry, used their dirks in stabbing the horses under 
the belly, or, dragging down the men by their long-skirted 
coats, engaged with them in mortal struggles, during which 
they seldom failed to poniard their antagonists. The chief 
of Clanranald was thrown below a dead horse, from which 
he could not extricate himself, when one of his own clan 
tumbled down beside him in the arms of a dismounted dra- 
goon. From his situation, the chief could not well make 
his condition known to any more distant clansman, and it 
almost appeared that his existence depended upon the suc- 

iLife of John Metcalf, a blind Englishman, who acted as musician to the 
Yorkshire Blues, and whose book contains many curious particulars regard- 
ing the battle of Falkirk, p. 89. 

2 Henderson's Hist. Reb. 266. 



198 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

cess which this man might have with the dragoon. After 
a brief and anxious interval, the Highlander contrived to 
stab his foeman, and then sprang to relieve his prostrate 
chief. 1 

This was but a trifling exception from the general fate 
of the dragoon charge. The mass retreated, doing great 
damage to the infantry of their own army. Lord George 
Murray was very anxious that the Macdonald regiments 
under his charge should keep their ranks, as the bulk of the 
English army was yet to engage, and the remainder of the 
Highland lines were as yet scarcely formed. But these 
regiments were too much elated by the repulse of the dra- 
goons to obey any orders to that effect. Many of them 
broke off, sword in hand, and encountered the parties of 
militia stationed nearly opposite to them. 

A few minutes after the dragoons had fled, the left wing, 
or rather moiety, of the Highland army, consisting of the 
Mackintoshes, Macphersons, Camerons, Stuarts of Appin, 
and others, were charged by the English regiments op- 
posed to them, assisted by a party of horse. The High- 
landers having met the horse with a good fire, advanced 
upon the foot sword in hand, their ranks thickened by a 
considerable number of individuals from the second line, 
who were too impatient for action to be restrained to that 
position. The Macdonalds were at the same moment 
rushing down in considerable numbers upon the left wing 
of the English army. Thus a simultaneous attack was 
made, by nearly the whole of the Highland front line, 
upon all the English regiments, except the three which out- 
flanked the Prince's forces. Those regiments, half blinded 
and wholly disconcerted by the storm, and with their pieces 
rendered useless by the rain, gave way before the onset, 
and trooped off hurriedly in large parties towards Falkirk, 
bearing General Hawley along with them. 

Some individuals who beheld the battle from the steeple 
of Falkirk, used to describe these, its main events, as 
occupying a surprisingly brief space of time. They first 
saw the English army enter the misty and storm-covered 
moor at the top of the hill ; then saw the dull atmosphere 
thickened by a fast-rolling smoke, and heard the pealing 
sounds of the discharge; immediately after they beheld 
the discomfited troops burst wildly from the cloud in which 
they had been involved, and rush, in far-spread disorder, 
over the face of the hill. From the commencement till 

1 Chevalier Johnstone, 122. 



THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 199 

what they styled ' the break of the battle/ there did not 
intervene more than ten minutes — so soon may an efficient 
body of men become, by one transient emotion of cowardice, 
a feeble and contemptible rabble. 

The rout would have been total, but for the three out- 
flanking 1 regiments. These not having 1 been opposed by 
any of the clans, having the ravine in front, and deriving 
some support from a small body of dragoons, stood their 
ground under the command of General Huske and Bri- 
gadier Cholmondley. When the Highlanders went past in 
pursuit, they received a volley from this part of the English 
army, which brought them to a pause, and caused them to 
draw back to their former ground, their impression being 
that some ambuscade was intended. This saved the Eng- 
lish army from destruction. A pause took place, during 
which the bulk of the English infantry got back to Falkirk. 
It was not till Lord George Murray brought up the second 
line of his wing, and the pickets with some others on the 
other wing, that General Huske drew off his party, which 
he did in good order. There is some obscurity in the ac- 
counts of the action with respect to this particular juncture ; 
but there can be no doubt that the English army retired 
into Falkirk without molestation from the Highlanders, 
and that the latter stayed for some time on the Held of 
battle, or between it and the town, uncertain what to do 
further. 

It would appear as if the very facility with which the 
Highlanders gained the earlier part of their victory, was a 
main cause of its being ultimately incomplete. When Lord 
John Drummond saw'the Scots Royals fly, he cried, l These 
men behaved admirably at Fontenoy — surely this is a feint?' 
It was impossible for even the Highlanders, humble as was 
their opinion of the British regiments, to believe that they 
would display so extreme a degree of cowardice ; and when 
they at length found no enemies before them, they could 
not help asking each other (in Gaelic), l What is become of 
the men ? Where are they I 1 Surprised, and apprehensive 
of some mysterious design, they remained for a considerable 
time irresolute. Many of the officers were of opinion that 
they ought to retire for shelter to Dunipace, and other vil- 
lages in the rear; but Lord George Murray was decided 
for attempting to enter Falkirk immediately, lest the Eng- 
lish army might post themselves advantageously in it. He 
was certain that at present they were in great confusion ; 
but a little time might put them into a different condition. 
He concluded with Count Mercy's exclamation at the 



200 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

battle of Parma, that he would either lie in the town or in 
paradise. The Prince, when he came up, approved of 
the proposal to attempt the town ; but he was himself ad- 
vised to stay at some house on the face of the hill, till Lord 
George should inform him of the success of the attempt. 
The Master of Strathallan, and Mr Oliphant, younger 
of Gask, then disguised themselves as peasants, and went 
forward to Falkirk, where they learned that General Haw- 
ley, after giving orders to fire his tents, had retreated to the 
eastward, leaving the town vacant. On this fact being 
communicated to the army on the moor, three detachments, 
respectively under the command of Lord John Drum- 
mond, Locheil, and Lord George Murray, proceeded to the 
town, which they entered at three different points — Lord 
John's party by the west end, Locheii's by a lane near the 
centre, and Lord George's by another lane farther to the 
east. They found nothing but a few straggling parties in 
the streets. Nevertheless, considerable apprehensions of a 
renewed attack from the English army still prevailed. It 
was not till about seven o'clock that, the Earl of Kilmar- 
nock having approached the Edinburgh road by byways 
through his own lands, and returned with intelligence that 
he had seen the English army hurrying along in full flight, 
the Prince at length thought proper to seek shelter in the 
town of Falkirk from the storm to which he had been ex- 
posed for Hve hours. 

Charles was conducted, by torchlight, to a lodging which 
had been prepared for him in the house of a lady called 
Madam Graham, the widow of a physician, a Jacobite, 
and a woman whose intelligence and superior manners are 
still remembered with veneration at Falkirk. This house, 
which stands opposite to the steeple, was then the best in 
the town, and is still a tolerably handsome mansion, and 
occupied as the post-office ; but, according to the fashion of 
times not very remote in Scotland, the best room, and that 
in which Charles was obliged to dine and hold his court, 
contains a bed concealed within folding-doors. Unexpected 
good fortune, however, reconciles the mind to trivial in- 
conveniences ; and it is not probable that the victor of 
Falkirk regretted to spend the evening of his triumph in 
an apartment about twelve feet square, lighted by one 
window, and which was at once his refectory and bed- 
chamber. 

Only about 1500 of the Highland army rested that night 
in Falkirk. The remainder had scattered themselves to the 
westward, in search of shelter. A great deal of confusion 



THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 201 

had prevailed ; some even retired, under the impression 
that their party had been defeated. Several chiefs, includ- 
ing Lord Lewis Gordon, met in the course of the evening* 
at the house of Dunipace, in a state of uncertainty as to 
the general result of the battle, and ignorant even of the 
fate of their own regiments. At length, about eight 
o'clock, their minds were relieved by the arrival of Mac- 
donald of Lochgarry, who had been sent from Falkirk to 
order the troops forward in the morning. The intelligence 
brought by this gentleman for the first time gave them 
reason to suppose that their army had had the best of the 
day. 

The Falkirk party, with the exception of a few skir- 
mishers sent off to harass the retreating enemy, employed 
themselves during this evening in securing the English 
camp and its contents, and in stripping the bodies of the 
slain. Hawley, in the brief interval between the rout and 
the pursuit, had made an attempt to strike his camp and 
take away his baggage ; but, owing* to the desertion of his 
wagoners, and the necessity of a speedy retreat, he was at 
last obliged to abandon the whole to the Highlanders, 
having only made an ineffectual attempt to set it on fire. 
Charles thus obtained possession of a vast quantity of mili- 
tary stores, while his men enriched themselves with such 
articles of value as the people of Falkirk had not previously 
abstracted. In addition to the tents, baggage, &c. which 
fell into his hands, he secured seven pieces of cannon, three 
mortars, 600 muskets, a large quantity of handgrenades, 
and 4000 pounds' weight of powder, besides many stand- 
ards and other trophies of victory. As for the slain, they 
were that night stripped so effectually, that a citizen of 
Falkirk, who next morning surveyed the field from a 
distance, and who lived till recent years to describe the 
scene, used to say that he could compare them to nothing 
but a large flock of white sheep at rest on the face of the 
hill. 

Charles lost thirty-two men in the battle, including 
officers, and had 120 wounded. The loss on the English 
side is stated by the official returns to have been 280 in 
all, killed, wounded, and missing, but was probably much 
more considerable. The loss of officers was, in particular, 
very great. There were killed four captains and two lieu- 
tenants of Blakeney's, five captains and one lieutenant of 
Wolfe's, with no fewer than three lieutenant - colonels, 
Whitney, Bigger, and Powell. Colonel Ligonier, who had 
been under medical treatment for pleurisy, went to the 



202 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

battle contrary to advice, and formed the rear-guard on the 
retreat to Linlithgow. The wetting he got that evening 
brought on a quinsy, of which he died on the 25th. It 
is worthy of note, though no more than was to have 
been expected, that the greatest loss took place in the regi- 
ments which soonest gave way. The most distinguished 
officer among the slain was Sir Kobert Monro of Foulis, 
the chief of an ancient and honourable family in the High- 
lands, and whose regiment was chiefly composed, like those 
of the insurgent leaders, of his own clan. Monro's had ex- 
cited the admiration of Europe by its conduct at the battle 
of Fontenoy, where it had fought almost without inter- 
mission for a whole day; but on the present occasion it 
was seized with a panic, and fled at the first onset of the 
insurgents. Sir Robert alone, who was so corpulent a man 
that he had been obliged at Fontenoy to stand upon his 
feet when all the rest of his regiment lay down on their 
faces to avoid the enemy's fire, boldly faced the charging 
Highlanders. He was attacked at once by six antagonists, 
two of whom he laid dead at his feet with his half-pike, but 
a seventh came up, and discharged a shot into his body, by 
which he was mortally wounded. 1 His brother, an un- 
armed physician, at this juncture came to his relief, but 
shared in the indiscriminate slaughter which was then 
going on. Next day their bodies were found, stripped and 
defaced, in a little pool of water formed around them by 
the rain ; and it was remarked in that of the brave Sir 
Robert, as an instance of the ruling passion strong in 
death, that his right hand still clenched the pommel of his 
sword, from which the whole blade had been broken off. 
The corpses were honourably interred in one grave in the 
parish churchyard, 2 near the tombs of Graham and Stewart, 
the heroes of the former battle of Falkirk. 

The mass of Hawley's army spent that night at Linlith- 
gow, about ten miles from the field. They next day con- 
tinued the retreat to Edinburgh, where they arrived in the 
afternoon, in a state strikingly different from that order, 

1 * Callum na Biobhaig ; that is, Malcolm of the Small Lock of Hair, whose 
real name was Malcolm Macgregor, one of Glengyle's men, was the man that 
shot Sir Rohert Monro at the battle of Falkirk, at the very first onset or 
beginning of the battle.'— Letter of Bishop Mackintosh, MS., in possession of 
the author. 

2 A monument has been erected over the grave of the two brothers, with a 
suitable inscription. There is a legend among the Jacobites, that on applica- 
tion being made to a gentleman in the neighbourhood of Falkirk for per- 
mission to take the necessary stones from his quarry, he answered, with the 
sly wit of his party, « Monuments ! an' ye like I'll gie ye monuments for 
them a' ! ' 



THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 203 

freshness, and confidence in which they had left the city a 
few days before. The state-officers, and other friends of 
the government, were more distressed by this aifair than 
even by Preston, many of the troops employed on the occa- 
sion having* been tried in several campaigns. Hawley's 
policy seems to have been to bluster through the disgrace. 
The accounts of the action published by him are full of gas- 
conade. Any failure that he admits at all, he lays to the 
account of the bitter storm of wind and rain, which blew in 
the faces of his troops, and made their firelocks useless. 
"While he makes some slight allusion to the retreat of the 
dragoons and part of his left wing of infantry, he lays great 
stress upon the gallant behaviour of his right wing, which, 
he says, repulsed the rebels, and drove them from the field. 
He represents this portion of his troops as staying an hour 
in the field, while the rebels durst not molest them. The 
whole retired in good order to Falkirk. He intended at 
first to occupy his camp ; but the weather proving ex- 
tremely bad, and having advice that the enemy were push- 
ing to get between him and Edinburgh, he resolved to 
march to Linlithgow. When the tents were to be struck, 
it was found that many of the drivers had ridden off with 
the horses ; he therefore ordered the tents to be burnt. For 
the like reason, seven pieces of artillery had been left be- 
hind. He allowed of 280 men missing, but alleged that the 
enemy had lost many more. In short, the Gazette accounts 
of the affair read remarkably well : ] it only happens to be 

1 A few days after, the following jeu d'esprit, ridiculing the terms of the 
Government Gazette, made the round of the journals :— ' The Westminster 
chimney-sweeps, being in arms against the shoe-blackers of this neighbourhood 
(Whitehall), early yesterday morning were in motion to attack them. Our 
people had not at first any advice of the enemy's motions ; and though scouts 
were sent out to Tothill Street, Milbank, and several other ways, they were 
not perceived till the front of them appeared at the bottom of King Street. 
Upon this the shoe-blackers formed with all expedition, and moved on to get 
advantage of the ground. But parties of the chimney-sweepers coming round 
by Channel Row and the Park, in spite of our teeth got to the windward of 
our friends, the wind being then north-east. Just as the armies engaged, a 
violent gust arose, which blew the soot from the chimney-sweepers so strongly 
in the eyes of our people, that they could not see at all, and thought proper to 
retreat in good order into the Mewse. The enemy's loss was judged to be very 
considerable ; but no particulars can be given, as it is believed they carried 
off their dead and wounded in their sacks. The battle was fought in the 
Broadway, just over against the Horse Guards. Oar friends kept the field — 
especially the killed and wounded. We found, when we came to our quarters, 
that several stools, baskets, brushes, and blacking-pots were missing. This 
was owing to the behaviour of Jack Linklight and Tom Scrubit, who, being 
left in charge of the stores, abandoned them at the beginning of the action ; 
but some accounts say that what they could not carry off they threw into 
the fire of a neighbouring gin-shop. The shoe-blackers are getting up a new 
set of tools, and design to attack the chimney-sweepers, who are now quiet in 
their cellars.' 



204 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

true that the general had mismanaged the march of his 
troops to the field, and their arrangement there ; that four- 
fifths of his army were disgracefully beaten and driven back ; 
that he lost his cannon, his camp, and most of its contents ; 
and in less than twenty-four hours from the time of the 
action, had retired twenty-six miles from the field. 

Hawley, before leaving Edinburgh, had erected two 
gibbets whereon to hang the Highlanders who should 
surrender to him in the victory he expected to achieve. 
After he returned in a state so different from that of a con- 
queror, he had to use these conspicuous monuments of his 
folly for the execution of some of his own men. 1 He hanged 
no fewer than four in one day, permitting their bodies to 
remain on the gallows till sunset. 2 Such a sight had not 
been seen in Edinburgh since the day before the Duke of 
York opened the Scottish parliament in the year 1681, 
when five rebellious ministers were executed at once in the 
Grassmarket. 3 The captain of the artillery, who had de- 
serted his charge at the beginning of the action, upon a 
horse which he cut from the train, was cashiered with 
infamy ; and many of the private soldiers who had displayed 
extraordinary cowardice were severely whipped. 

By a strange chance, Hawley carried along with him 
from Falkirk one prisoner. This was the gallant Major 
Macdonald of Tiendrish, cousin of Keppoch, and who had 
signalised himself by the attack upon the two companies 
of foot in Lochaber, at the beginning of the insurrection. 
Seeing the right wing of Hawley's army still keeping the 
field, and mistaking it for Lord John Drunimond/s regi- 
ment, he ran up to it, crying, ' Gentlemen, why do you 
stand here? Why don't you pursue the dogs?' and he 
was in the midst of them before he discovered his error. 
A cry was raised, 6 Here is a rebel ! Here is a rebel ! ' He 
attempted to pass for one of the loyal clan Campbell, trust- 
ing that his white cockade was sufficiently blackened by 
the firing and rain not to betray him. But all in vain. 
General Huske was for shooting him on the spot, but was 
induced by Lord Robert Kerr, an amiable officer, the son 

1 Quarterly Review, xiv. 

2 ' Both Hawley and his royal patron [the Duke of Cumberland] were signal 
exceptions to the rule that brave men are never cruel. Once, in Flanders, 
a deserter being hanged before Hawley's windows, the surgeons begged to 
have the body for dissection. But Hawley was reluctant to part with the 
pleasing spectacle: "At least," said he, " you shall give me the skeleton to 
hang up in the guard-room." '—Lord Mahon, quoting a letter of Horace Wal- 
pole, who added, that the soldiers' nickname for Hawley was ' the Lord Chief 
Justice.' 

3 Henderson's History of the Rebellion, 277. 



THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 205 

of the Marquis of Lothian, to give him quarter. He re- 
quested that he might he allowed to surrender his arms to 
an officer, as he had the honour to be one himself; and he 
advanced to Huske for that purpose. But the general had 
the usual contempt for the Highland army, and swore he 
would do no rebel so much honour. The generous Kerr 
then stepped forward to take Macdonald' s arms. Tiendrish 
could not perform even this act of self-humiliation without 
a recollection of his dignity of blood and station, and he 
drew forth his pistols from his belt with such an air as 
impressed the English general with a dread of assassination. 
On his expressing this fear in his own vulgar language, 
Macdonald drew himself up with still greater pride, and 
said he could do nothing unbecoming a gentleman. He 
was then mounted on horseback, bound, and carried along 
with the retreating army to Edinburgh. The circumstances 
help to show that the English right wing retired from the 
field with deliberation, though they did not perhaps linger 
a whole hour upon it. 

While the English industriously denied that they had 
lost the battle, the insurgents made no very confident pre- 
tensions to having gained it. They w T ere, in reality, morti- 
fied at having taken so little advantage of the circumstances 
which fortune had laid before them, and which, they were 
sensible, might never occur again. From Lord George 
Murray's narrative, it would appear that, as to pre-arrange- 
ment and concert, there was as remarkable a deficiency on 
the insurgent as on the government side. If the bravery 
of the Macdonald regiments were put out of view, it might 
be said that the storm had gained them the battle. The 
considerations which arose, from all the circumstances, in 
the minds of the more reflecting officers were not agreeable. 
They l were convinced/ says Lord Georg'e Murray, l that, 
unless they could attack the enemy at very considerable 
advantage, either by surprise or by some strong situation 
of ground, or a narrow pass, they could not expect any great 
success, especially if their numbers were no ways equal; 
and that a body of regular troops was absolutely necessary 
to support them, when they should at any time go in, 
sword in hand ; for they were sensible that, without more 
leisure and time than they could expect to have to discipline 
their own men, it would not be possible to make them keep 
their ranks, or rally soon enough upon any sudden emer- 
gency, so that any small body of the enemy either keeping 
in a body when they were in confusion, or rallying soon, 
would deprive them of a victory, even after they had done 



206 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

their best.' The significancy of these remarks will suffi- 
ciently appear, when we come to consider the next battle 
in which the clans were engaged. 

The succeeding day, during which it continued to rain 
with little intermission, was spent at Falkirk by the insur- 
gents in securing the spoils and burying the slain. They 
employed the country people to dig a spacious pit upon 
the field of battle, into which they precipitated the naked 
corpses. The rustics who stood around easily distinguished 
the English soldiers from the Highlanders by their com- 
parative nudity, and by the deep gashes which seamed their 
shoulders and breasts — the dreadful work of the broad- 
sword. 1 The number of slain inhumed in this pit was such, 
that some years after the surface sank down many feet, 
and there is still a considerable hollow at that part of the 
battle-field. 

The Highland army lost more this day by an accident 
than it did on the preceding by the fire of the enemy. A 
private soldier of the Clanranald regiment had obtained a 
musket as part of his spoil upon the field of battle : finding 
it loaded, he was engaged at his lodgings in extracting the 
shot ; the window was open, and nearly opposite there was 
a group of officers standing on the street. The man ex- 
tracted a ball, and then fired off the piece, to clear it in the 
most expeditious manner of the powder ; but, unfortunately, 
it had been double loaded, and the remaining ball pierced 
the body of young Glengarry, who was one of the group 
of bystanders. He soon after died in the arms of his clans- 
men, begging with his last breath that the man, of whose 
innocence he was satisfied, might not suffer ; but nothing 
could restrain the indignation of his friends, who imme- 
diately seized the man, and loudly demanded life for life. 
Young Clanranald would have gladly protected his clans- 
man ; but, certain that any attempt he could make to that 
effect would only embroil his family in a feud with that of 
Glengarry, and, in the first place, cause that regiment to 
quit the Prince's service, he was reluctantly obliged to 
assent to their demand. The man was immediately taken 
out to the side of a park-wall near the town, and pierced 
with a volley of bullets. His own father put a shot into 
his body, from the desire to make his death as instantaneous 
as possible. 

The Prince, who had most occasion to regret this acci- 
dent, as it endangered the attachment of a valuable regi- 

1 Tradition at Falkirk. 



THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 207 

ment, exerted himself, by showing the most respectful 
attentions to the deceased, to console the clan for their loss. 
He caused the grave of Sir John Graham, which had never 
before been disturbed, to be opened for the reception of the 
youthful soldier, as the only part of the churchyard of 
Falkirk which was worthy to be honoured with his corpse ; 
and he himself attended the obsequies as chief mourner, 
holding the string which consigned his head to the grave. 
Charles's judicious kindness was not unappreciated by the 
grateful Highlanders ; but, nevertheless, a considerable 
number yielded to their grief or rage so far as to desert 
his standard. 

Another incident took place this day upon the street of 
Falkirk, which had almost become as tragical as the former, 
and which illustrates in a striking manner the peculiar ties 
of clanship. Lord Kilmarnock had brought up to the front 
of Charles's lodging a few prisoners whom he had taken the 
preceding night in the rear of the retreating army; and 
Charles was standing within the open window with a paper 
in his hand, conversing with Lord Kilmarnock, when a man 
was seen coming up the street in the uniform of an English 
regiment, with a musket and bayonet in his hand, and a 
black cockade upon his hat. A few captive volunteers, 
among whom Mr Home, the narrator of the incident, was 
one, beheld the man with surprise ; and conceiving* that he 
designed to assassinate the Prince, expected every moment 
to see him take aim and fire. Charles, observing the pri- 
soners look all one way, turned his head in the same direc- 
tion, and immediately comprehending the cause of their 
alarm, called in some surprise to Lord Kilmarnock, and 
pointed towards the soldier. The earl instantly descended 
to the street, and finding the man by that time just opposite 
to the window, went up to him, struck his hat off his head, 
and set his foot upon the black cockade. At that instant 
one of the numerous Highlanders who stood upon the pave- 
ment rushed forward, and violently pushed Lord Kilmar- 
nock from his place. The earl pulled out a pistol, and pre- 
sented it at the Highlander's head ; the Highlander drew 
his dirk, and held it close to Kilmarnock's breast. In this 
posture they stood about half a minute, when a crowd of 
Highlanders rushed between the parties, and drove Kilmar- 
nock away. The man with the dirk in his hand then took 
up the hat, put it on the soldier's head, and the Highlanders 
marched off with him in triumph. 

This unaccountable pantomime astonished the prisoners, 
and they intreated an explanation from one of the insur- 



208 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

gent officers who stood near. He answered that the soldier 
was not in reality what he seemed, but a Cameron, who had 
deserted his regiment (the Scots Royals) during the conflict, 
to join the company of his chief, when he had been per- 
mitted to retain his dress and arms till he could be provided 
with the uniform of the clan. The Highlander who inter- 
posed was his brother, and the crowd that had rushed in, 
his clansmen the Camerons. Lord Kilmarnock, in presuming 
to interfere, even through ignorance, in the affairs of a clan, 
had excited their high displeasure ; ' nor, in my opinion/ 
continued the officer, c can any person in the Prince's army 
take that cockade out of the man's hat except Locheil 
himself.' 

At this period of the campaign the mountaineers had 
become better acquainted than they were at first with the 
commodities of civilised life. Money had now become an 
object with them; and it is surprising what large sums 
some of them had amassed about their persons. At the 
battle of Falkirk, a private Highlander having pursued one 
of Barrel's regiment down the hill, and in his turn fled on 
the man turning about to oppose him, was shot through 
the head by Brigadier Cholmondley, and left to be rifled by 
the soldier. To the man's astonishment, no less a sum than 
sixteen guineas was found in the sporran or purse of the 
dead Highlander ! * 

Prince Charles returned to Bannockburn on the evening 
of the 18th, leaving Lord George Murray, with a portion 
of the army, at Falkirk. Among other articles which the 
Prince had brought away with him from Glasgow was a 
printing-press, with its accompaniments of types and work- 
men. Sensible of the advantage which the other party had 
over him in their command of the public press, and no 
doubt incensed at the lies they were constantly propagating 

1 During the stay of the Highlanders at Falkirk they treated the inhabi- 
tants with extraordinary lenity, on account of their connexion with the Earl 
of Kilmarnock, and the readiness which they displayed in serving the cause 
of the Prince. An old woman, who lives (1827), at the age of ninety-seven, 
and was of course fifteen years of age at the time of the battle, informed the 
writer of these sheets that the Highlanders were considered a merciful 
enemy compared with the dragoons. 

This general lenity was not without exceptions. A local correspondent 
states that a small party, on the day after the battle, laid violent hands on a 
flaming Jacobite named David Watt, then the principal innkeeper of Falkirk, 
brought him out to the street in front of his own door, and, setting him down 
squat upon the causeway, deliberately eased his feet of a pair of new shoes 
with silver buckles. He protested his Jacobitism to save them; but the 
spoliators, perhaps accustomed to such shallow excuses, disregarded his 
declaration ; ironically observing, * Sae muckle ta better— she'll no grumble 
to shange a progue for the Prince's guid.' It is added that David's principles 
were a good deal shaken by this unhappy incident. 



THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK. 209 

against him, he had employed his first leisure at Glasgow 
in publishing" a journal of his march into England, which, 
if not free of a little gasconade, was certainly quite as 
faithful as the gazettes of government. He had brought 
the press along With him, in order to continue his publi- 
cations occasionally; and he now issued from Bannock- 
burn a quarto sheet, containing a well-penned and modest 
account of his victory at Falkirk. This, however, was 
destined to be the last of his gazettes, as the rapidity of his 
subsequent movements rendered it impossible to transport 
so large and complicated an engine. 1 

He now resumed the siege of Stirling Castle, having first 
sent a summons of surrender to General Blakeney, which 
that officer answered with his former firmness. He had 
been advised by an engineer of the name of Grant, who had 
conducted the siege of Carlisle, to open trenches in the 
churchyard, which lies between the castle and the town ; 
but was induced to abandon that design by the citizens, 
who represented that it must insure the destruction of their 
houses. There were two other points from which the castle 
might be stormed, though not nearly so advantageous as 
that pointed out by Mr Grant — the Gowan Hill, an irre- 
gular eminence under the castle walls on the north side; 
and the Ladies' Hill, a small bare rock facing the south- 
east. The Prince, anxious to save the town, consulted with 
a French engineer, who had recently arrived in Scotland, if 
it would be possible to raise an effective battery upon either 
of these eminences. The person thus consulted was a Mr 
Gordon, styling- himself Monsieur Mirabelle, a chevalier of 
the order of St Louis, but a man so whimsical both in his 
body and mind, that the Highlanders used to parody his 
nom de guerre into Mr Admirable. 2 It is the characteristic 
of ignorance never to think anything impossible; and this 
man at once undertook to open a battery upon the Gowan 
Hill, though there were not fifteen inches' depth of earth 
above the rock, and the walls of the castle overlooked it by 
at least fifty feet. 

After many days of incessant labour, a sort of battery was 
constructed of bags of sand and wool, and a number of can- 
non brought to bear upon the fortress. General Blakeney 
had not taken all the advantage he might have done of 
his position to interrupt the works, conceiving that it was 
best to amuse the Highland army with the prospect of 

1 This printing-press existed, as a proof-press— that is, a press for printing 
proof-sheets— in Mr Duncan Stevenson's office, Edinburgh, so lately as 1824. 

2 Chevalier Johnstone, 117. 

VOL. V. N 



210 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

taking 1 the castle, and thus give government time to 
concentrate its forces against them. But when the bat- 
tery was opened, he thought proper to answer it in a 
suitable manner. Such was the eminence of his situation, 
that it is said he could see the very shoe-buckles of the 
besiegers as they stood behind their intrenchments. The 
cannon on this battery of course pointed upwards, and 
scarcely did the least harm either to his fortifications or his 
men. The besieged, on the contrary, were able to destroy 
a great number of their opponents, including many French 
pickets, who were perhaps the best soldiers in their army. 
The works were demolished at leisure, and the siege was 
then abandoned as a matter of course, after a considerable 
loss of men. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ARRIVAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 

The remnant of the royal blood 

Comes pouring on me like a flood — 

The princesses in number five — 

Duke William, sweetest prince alive !— Swift. 

When the news of Hawley's manoeuvres at Falkirk 
reached the court of St James's, where a drawing-room 
happened to be held on that particular day, every counte- 
nance is said to have been marked with doubt and appre- 
hension, excepting those only of the king himself, the Earl 
of Stair, and Sir John Cope. 1 It was now thought neces- 

1 The face of this general is said to have been radiant with joy at the intelli- 
gence, which at once, in some measure, cleared his honour, and caused him 
to gain an immense sum of money. But he was somewhat put out of coun- 
tenance by an absent Scottish peer addressing him soon after by the title 
General Hawley, to the no small amusement of those who heard the quid pro 
quo. — Quart. Rev. xxxvi. 180. As the reader may possibly feel some inte- 
rest in the conduct of this unfortunate general, it may further be mentioned, 
upon the authority of the pamphlet ascribed to David Hume, that ' during 
the whole winter after the battle of Preston he was carried about London in 
his chair, to escape the derision of the mob ; till the news of the battle of 
Falkirk arrived, and then he pulled back the curtains, and showed his face 
and his red ribbon to all the world. Thus,' adds the pamphleteer, * the repu- 
tation of Avhich the hero of Coltbridge [Fowkes, who was loudly and gene- 
rally accused of cowardice] was the means of depriving him, was in a great 
measure restored to him by the hero of Falkirk.' Sir John Cope, of Brewern, 
Oxfordshire, Baronet— the hero, as we presume, of Preston— died March 28, 
1765. Lieutenant- General Fowkes, who had been so prominent in the same 
military transactions, died on the ensuing day, having been sixty years an 
officer in the army. 



ARRIVAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 211 

sary to send a general against the insurgents, the best and 
most popular of whom the country could boast, and who, by 
one decisive effort, might at length be certain of success. 
The Duke of Cumberland, who, after tracking their course 
to Carlisle, had been recalled in apprehension of a French 
invasion, was now requested to resume the command which 
he then abandoned, and immediately to set out for the north. 
He lost no time in obeying his father's orders ; and was so 
expeditious, as to arrive unexpectedly at Edinburgh early in 
the morning of the 30th of January, after a journey per- 
formed in the short space of four days. 

This young general was of the same age as Charles — 
namely, twenty-five — but did not possess the same personal 
graces, being remarkably corpulent and unwieldy, while his 
manners were rough and unpleasing. As no Scotsman 
could be expected to describe him with impartiality, it may 
be as well here to use the words of Lord Mahon. 'His 
character/ says this writer, 'was adorned by considerable 
virtues — honesty of purpose, adherence to his promises, 
attachment to his friends. He was a dutiful son, and a 
liberal patron : as a soldier, he was enthusiastically fond of 
his profession ; he had closely studied its details, and might 
even be lauded for capacity, in an age which, to England 
at least, was singularly barren of military merit. His un- 
wearied activity and high personal courage would, how- 
ever, at any period have justly claimed applause. But, as 
one of his own friends complains, "his judgment is too 
much guided by his passions, which are often violent and 
ungovernable." 1 Against his foreign adversaries he dis- 
played no undue asperity, and towards his soldiers he could 
sometimes show compassion : thus, for instance, on arriving 
at Edinburgh, he immediately arrested the course of Haw- 
ley's savage executions : yet even his own army often mur- 
mured at his harshness and rigour ; and as to any rebel, he 
treated him with as little mercy as he might a wolf. Never, 
perhaps, did any insurgents meet a more ungenerous enemy. 
From the deeds of blood in Scotland — committed by his 
own order in some cases, and connived at in many more — 
his contemporaries branded him with a disgraceful byword 
— The Butcher; and the historian who cannot deny the 
guilt, must repeat and ratify the name/ 

On arriving at Holyroodhouse, he immediately went to 
bed — occupying the same couch of state which Charles had 
used four months before. After reposing two hours, he 

1 Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 23. 



212 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

rose and proceeded to business. Before eight o'clock, and 
before he had taken breakfast, he is said to have been busy 
with Generals Hawley and Huske, and other principal 
officers, whom he summoned so hastily that they appeared 
in their boots. During the course of the forenoon he 
received visits from the state-officers, the professors of the 
university, and the principal citizens, all of whom had the 
honour of kissing" his hand. Meanwhile the music-bells 
were rung in his honour, and the magistrates prepared to 
present him with the freedom of the city. In the midst of 
matters of state, he did not neglect those of war. He de- 
scended to the large court in front of the palace, where a 
train of artillery had been collected, and made a careful and 
deliberate inspection of the pieces. In the afternoon, accord- 
ing to appointment, a number of ladies, chiefly belonging 
to Whig families of distinction, paid their respects to him 
in the same hall where Charles had so lately entertained 
his fair adherents, 1 He kissed them all round, made a short 
speech expressive of his satisfaction, and then retired to hold 
a council of war. 

The army had received various reinforcements since its re- 
treat from Falkirk, and was prepared to march for some days 
before the duke's arrival. Amongst other accessions, there 
was one of a very peculiar nature, which no Whig historian 
has as yet had the hardihood to record. It will be remem- 
bered that the officers taken by the Prince at Preston had 
been allowed by him to go at large, on parole, and under an 
oath not to bear arms against the family of Stuart for a 
twelvemonth. In the middle of January, some of these 
gentlemen, placed in little parties at Glammis, Cupar, and 
Leslie, had been c delivered' by armed parties of the country 
people, and brought, apparently by force, to Edinburgh. 
Afterwards some others, who resided at St Andrews, Cul- 
ross, and Pitfirran, were liberated by the same means, and 
also carried to Edinburgh. The Edinburgh newspapers of 
the time describe them as at a loss how to act on this occa- 
sion; they did not appear in military dress or with their 
swords. Now, however, the duke took it upon him to 
resolve the difficulty. Incredible as it may appear, this 
prince, declaring their oath and parole to be dissolved, com- 
manded them to return to duty in his army, and sent simi- 
lar orders to all who still remained non-< delivered/ threaten- 

1 They were dressed in splendid style; and one of them, Miss Ker, did him 
the peculiar honour to appear with a busk, at the top of whioh was a crown, 
done in bugles, surrounded by the words, * William, Duke of Cumberland, 
Britain's hero.' 



ARRIVAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 213 

ing them with the loss of their commissions if they refused. 
A small number, including* Sir Peter Halket, Mr Boss, son 
of Lord Ross-, Captain Lucy Scott, and Lieutenants Far- 
quharson and Cumming, refused compliance, remarking* 
that the duke was master of their commissions, hut not 
of their honour. But the greater number rejoined their 
regiments, and served during* the remainder of the cam- 
paign. 

It was determined in the council that the army should 
set forward next morning* towards the position of the in- 
surgents, with his royal highness at its head. So prompt 
a resolution gave new courage to the troops, and raised the 
hopes of the friends of government, hitherto very much 
depressed. 

The duke set out from Holyroodhouse at nine o'clock in 
the morning of Friday the 31st of January, after having 
been only thirty hours in Edinburgh. 

The army had departed early in the same morning, in 
two columns ; one by Borrowstownness, led by General 
Huske ; the other by Linlithgow, of which the duke was to 
take the command in person. Ligonier's and Hamilton's 
dragoons patrolled the roads in advance, to prevent intelli- 
gence reaching the insurgents. The army comprised alto- 
gether fourteen battalions of infantry, four regiments of 
cavalry, the Argyle militia, and a train of artillery. The 
whole might amount to ten thousand men. 

The Duke of Cumberland had been presented by the Earl 
of Hopetoun with a coach and twelve horses ; and thinking 
it necessary to make his departure from Edinburgh with as 
much parade as possible, he used this equipage in passing 
through the town. As he passed up the Canongate and the 
High Street, he is said to have expressed great surprise at 
the number of broken windows which he saw ; but when 
informed that this was the result of a recent illumination, 
and that a shattered casement only indicated the residence 
of a Jacobite, he laughed heartily. His coach was followed 
by a great number of persons of distinction, and by a vast 
mob. On reaching a place in the suburbs called Castle- 
barns, he left the coach, and mounted his horse. The state 
officers and others then crowded about him to take leave, 
and the mob gave him a hearty huzza. He took off his hat, 
and turning round, thanked the people for this expression 
of their regard ; adding, that he had had but little time to 
cultivate their friendship, but would be well pleased when 
fortune gave him an opportunity of doing so. < I am in 
great haste, my friends/ he cried ; ' but I believe I shall 



214 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

soon be back to you with good news. Till then, adieu.' 
So saying", he shook hands with those nearest to him, 
paused a moment, and then exclaiming*, l Come, let us have 
a song* before parting-/ began to sing 1 a ditty which had 
been composed in his own honour : 

* Will ye play me fair, 
Highland laddie, Highland laddie ? " 

Then stretching" forth his hand, as if addressing* the object 
of his hostility, he set forward at a gallop, to put himself at 
the head of the army. 1 

He lodged this evening* at Linlithgow, and it was the 
general expectation that he would engage the Highlanders 
next day. Straggling parties had been seen hovering on 
the hills between Falkirk and Linlithgow, which, on the 
morning of the 1st of February, had fallen back to the Tor- 
wood, giving out that they would there await the royal 
army. But as he proceeded towards Falkirk, stray High- 
landers were brought before him, who reported that they 
were in reality conveying their baggage over the Forth, 
with the intention of retreating to the Highlands ; and the 
intelligence seemed to be confirmed by the noise of a distant 
explosion, occasioned by the blowing up of their powder 
magazine in the church of St Ninian's. The duke walked 
all the way from Linlithgow to Falkirk on foot, at the head 
of the Scots Boyals, to encourage the men after the manner 
of his rival ; but he now thought it unnecessary to pursue 
the march with extraordinary speed, and therefore rested 
this evening at Falkirk, where he found the soldiers who 
had been wounded in the late engagement deserted by their 
captors. 

When his royal highness arrived in Falkirk, and it was 
debated what lodging he should choose, he is said to have 
inquired for the house which 'his cousin had occupied,' 
being sure, he said, that that would not only be the most 
comfortable in the town, but also the best provisioned. He 
accordingly passed the night in the same house and the 
same bed which have been already described as accommo- 
dating Charles on the evening of the battle. He next 
morning marched to Stirling, which he found evacuated by 
the insurgents, and where General Blakeney informed him 
that, but for his seasonable relief, he must have speedily 
surrendered the fortress for want of ammunition and pro- 
visions. A considerable number of straggling adherents of 

1 Extract of a letter from Edinburgh, in Merchant's History of the Re- 
bellion, 329. 



ARRIVAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 215 

the chevalier were here taken prisoners, and sent to Edin- 
burgh Castle. 1 

1 Amongst these was a Miss Jeany Cameron, whom popular report assigned 
to the Prince as a mistress. The mistake of Sophia "Western for this lady at 
Gloucester, in Fielding's novel, would alone, if nothing else did, make her 
history interesting to us ; yet it is one of the most obscure affairs connected 
with the insurrection. It has been already stated, on the authority of Mr 
iEneas Macdonald, that Mrs Jean Cameron witnessed the setting up of the 
standard at Glenfinnin. The whole passage respecting her in Mr Macdonald's 
narrative is as follows :— ' Here a considerable number of both gentlemen and 
ladies met to see the ceremony; among the rest the famous Miss Jeany 
Cameron, as she is commonly, but very improperly called ; for she is a 
widow, nearer fifty than forty years of age. She is a genteel, well-looked, . 
handsome woman, with a pair of pretty eyes, and hair as black as jet. She is 
of a very sprightly genius, and is very agreeable in conversation. She was so 
far from accompanying the Prince's army, that she went off with the rest of 
the spectators as soon as the army marched. Neither did she ever follow the 
camp, nor was ever with the Prince but in public, when he had his court at 
Edinburgh.'* 

Some years ago, a gentleman who knew the late Sir Ewen Cameron of 
Fassefern, nephew of the Young Locheil of the '45, reported to the present 
writer the following particulars, as well known to Sir Ewen, and altogether 
be) T ond question : — ' The lady who made so much noise in 1745-6 as Miss 
Jeany Cameron, was a daughter of Cameron of Glendessery. She had 
married an Irish gentleman named O'Neal, with whom she lived several 
years in Ireland, till obliged, by his brutal behaviour, to divorce him. She 
then returned to Inverness- shire, where her original name was given to her. 
At the time of the insurrection she managed the estates of her brother, 
Cameron of Dungallon, who was out. She sent the Prince a present of cattle 
at the time of his raising the standard, but never saiv him herself. She was a 
woman of beauty and fashion, of good manners and masculine understand- 
ing. She died in 1774 [date wrong— see postea], at her house of Mount Cameron, 
in Lanarkshire.' 

These various statements, though not quite consistent with each other, 
seem to be nearly decisive that the Jean Cameron known in the Highlands 
as a lady of birth and breeding was not connected with Charles in the way 
which has been alleged by popular rumour. On the other hand, the lady 
taken at Stirling at the beginning of February, and conducted to Edinburgh 
Castle, was kept there till the 15th of November, and then liberated along with 
the Duchess of Perth, on bail. This fact, which the newspapers of the day 
make certain, would seem to imply that the lady taken at Stirling was really 
a woman of figure, and some political consequence. How this person came to 
be thought the same individual who had been present at the raising of the 
standard, I must profess myself at a loss to conjecture. Certainly, however, if 
there was a Jeany Cameron, or any person taking that name, in attendance 
on Charles through his English campaign, and subsequently taken at Stir- 
ling, it was a different lady from Mrs Jean Cameron of the Glendessery 
family. The Jeany Cameron tale altogether made such an impression on the 
public mind at the time, that a Grub Street novel was composed, of which it 
forms the groundwork. In Caulfeld's Portraits (4 vols. 4to.), there is one of 
' Miss Jeany Cameron,' accompanied by a professed memoir, evidently in the 
main fictitious, and probably a mere abridgment of the novel. It describes 
the lady as having been, in 1745, forty-six years of age, but still sufficiently 
handsome to charm the Prince. 

The lady pointed to by Sir Ewen Cameron died on the 27th of June 1772. 
In the Scots Magazine, where her death is recorded, she ;s described as \ Mrs 
Jean Cameron, sister to Captain Allan Cameron of Glendessery.' Moreover, 
in the article Morven, in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland 



* Lyon in Mourning, MS. iii. 516. 



216 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

The Highland army had in reality resolved to retire to 
the north. For several days after the battle of Falkirk 
Charles and his chiefs contemplated fighting again, on 
nearly the same ground, with the English army ; and with 
this design a review of the troops was held on the field of 
Bannockburn. On the 28th, when he learned that the 
Duke of Cumberland was expected in a day or two to take 
the command of the army at Edinburgh, Charles continued 
of the same mind, and had a plan of the proposed battle 
drawn out by Lord George Murray. It was now, however, 
found that the army was greatly reduced in number, many 
being supposed to have gone home, though in reality some 
were only straggling over the country. Convinced that 
only 5000 men could now be brought into the field against 
the double numbers of the enemy, Lord George Murray, 
Locheil, Keppoch, Clanranald, Ardshiel, Lochgarry, Scot- 
house, and the Master of Lovat, drew up a paper at Falkirk 
on the 29th, representing this in strong terms to the 
Prince, and recommending that the army should retire to 
the north, where it could be usefully employed during the 
remainder of the winter in taking the forts, and could be at 
no loss to defend itself against superior forces till the spring, 
when, they were certain, an army of 10,000 men could 
easily be brought into the field, not to speak of the succours 
to be expected from abroad. Charles, on receiving this 
document at Bannockburn, sent Sir Thomas Sheridan to 
argue the matter with the chiefs : they in their turn sent 
Keppoch to argue with him. In the end, they succeeded in 
gaining his consent to the retreat. 1 For two days more, 

(1794), it is mentioned that ' the session has lately got £40, being the principal 
and interest of £20 bequeathed in the year 1772 to the poor of Morven by 
Mrs Jean Cameron of Mount Cameron.' 

1 His conduct on this occasion has been variously represented. Mr John 
Hay of Restalrig, who now acted as his secretary, and must have always been 
near his person, says that, on receiving the paper drawn up by the chiefs, he 
was transported with rage and vexation, and struck his head against the 
wall till he staggered, exclaiming loudly against Lord George Murray. On 
the other hand, Colonel Warren, who was some time after sent with de- 
spatches to France, writing to the old chevalier from Paris, May 9th (April 
28, old style) , says that the Prince bore the proposition of the retreat to the 
north ' with that constancy and greatness he at once is master of : however 
severe and unnecessary it might appear to him, he generally,' adds this 
gentleman, * waived his own opinion, and paid a deference to that of some of 
the chiefs as in reward of their services, and a mark of his condescension to 
what they judged for the good of your royal cause and their happiness, which 
he gave proof was more to him than any other satisfaction he could propose, 
even to life itself ; so that they could not but admire his spirit, heart, and 
conduct. He has taught them how to bear the inconveniences of adversity, 
or a mis-step, by looking forward, providing for the time to come, and taking 
lesson by what is past ; and all this with such prudence, dignity, caution, 
and dexterity, that really show him to be born a general. I am sure there 



ARRIVAL OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 217 

the appearance of an intention to fight the royal troops was 
kept up ; but on the 31st, Lord George and the infantry- 
posted at Falkirk marched to Bannockburn, leaving Pit- 
sligo's, Elcho's, and Kilmarnock's horse to patrol before 
the English army. 

It was ag*reed that night, at the Prince's quarters at Ban- 
nockburn, that the army should muster next morning at 
nine o'clock, and march with deliberation across the Forth. 
The men, however, had been struck with alarm respecting 
the approaching army, and rising at daybreak of the 1st of 
February, they set out in a straggling manner, without 
waiting for proper orders. The movement was extremely 
discreditable, for the Prince and other leaders were left be- 
hind, exposed to the risk of a sally from Stirling Castle, and 
to all other hazards. Lord George Murray seems inclined 
in his narrative to throw the blame of the transaction on 
O'Sullivan, but without showing* any grounds for his sur- 
mise. In the hurry of the occasion, the powder belonging 
to the army, amounting to fifty barrels, was blown up 
in the church of St Ninian's, killing ten country-people, 
and also some of the Highlanders, besides endanger- 
ing the person of the Prince and some other persons of 
note who were passing* through the village at the time. It 
is not certain whether an order had been given to destroy 
this powder ; but certainly its explosion at that particular 
moment must have been accidental, when the preceding 
circumstances are considered. The heavy cannon were at 
the same time spiked, and many other articles, too bulky to 
be readily carried away, were thrown into the Forth. 

The Whig party papers represented the St Ninian's acci- 
dent in a light unfavourable to the Prince, alleging that he 
had ordered the explosion for the purpose of destroying the 
church and killing the unoffending villagers. So ridicu- 
lous a charge is not worthy of a moment's notice. The 
opposite party were perhaps equally unjust towards the 
royal army with reference to another accident which befell 
on the same day. A portion of the troops quartered at Lin- 
lithgow had been lodged in the palace, upon straw laid 
along the halls. In the morning, about the time of their 
departure, the straw caught fire, and soon involved the 
palace in flames. The army left it in that state, and it soon 

never was one more universally beloved by bis army, or more deserving it.' 
It is possible tbat both accounts may be in some measure true. A new 
proposal for retreat to one who had so set himself on going forward must 
have been extremely vexatious ; momentary feeling might produce the con- 
duct described by Mr Hay ; but, the first gust having expended itself, he 
might act the prudent and dignified part ascribed to him by Warren. 



218 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

became, what it now is, a blackened ruin. The impression 
of the people at the place was, and still is, that the affair 
was accidental, and I am disposed to believe that careless- 
ness in the management of their fires was the extent of 
guilt which can fairly be ascribed to the soldiery on this 
occasion. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

MARCH TO THE NORTH. 

Now great Hawley leads on, with great Huske at his tail, 
And the duke in the centre — this sure cannot fail. 

Jacobite Song. 

The last meal which Prince Charles partook upon the 
Lowland territory, which he had now kept possession of for 
iive months, was at Boquhan, on the 1st of February, imme- 
diately before crossing 1 the Forth. He arrived here a little 
after mid-day, along with his principal officers, and sat 
down to a dinner which had been prepared for him. On 
the preceding evening, Captain Campbell, of the king's 
service, had come, with a party of soldiers, to the farm of 
Wester Frew, upon the north side of the river, and asked 
for a person who might show him the fords. The farmer 
was a stanch Jacobite, and, suspecting no good to the 
Prince from the captain's inquiries, directed him, not to the 
regular and accustomed ford, but to one which was seldom 
used, a little farther up the river. Campbell then took from 
a cart several sackfuls of caltrops, which he threw into the 
stream. Having thus prepared, as he thought, for the annoy- 
ance of the insurgent army, he and his party withdrew. The 
farmer, secretly rejoicing at the service he had done to the 
Prince, crossed the water next day, along with his sons and 
servants, and remained near his Royal Highness all the time 
he was at dinner. When their meal was finished, the party 
took the proper ford, all except Charles, who, not thinking 
any information necessary regarding fords which he had 
used, rode through by one different from either of the above 
mentioned, and in which the farmer had seen one of Camp- 
bell's men deposit a single caltrop. The Prince's horse 
picked up this, and was wounded. 1 

The army spent the evening of that day (February 1st) 

1 This information was derived from one of the farmer's sons, who survived 
till recent times. 



MARCH TO THE NORTH. 219 

at Dumblane, while the Prince rode forward a few miles, 
and lodged at Drummond Castle, the princely seat of the 
Duke of Perth. The roads were now found so had, that 
they were obliged to leave some of their baggage behind. 
They persisted, however, in a resolution which had been 
made, to take all their prisoners along with them to the 
north. These persons, after the battle, had been confined 
in the castle of Doune, near Dumblane, a strong old fortress, 
of which the Laird of Glengyle had been made governor, 
and they now joined the army in its retreat. Many of 
them took the earliest opportunity of making their escape, 
notwithstanding that they were treated with all possible 
civility, and had pledged their honour not to take advan- 
tage of any indulgences which might be shown to them. 

The Highland army reached Crieff next day, and the 
Prince slept at Lord John Drummond's house of Fairnton. 
On the 3d, the Prince reviewed his forces, and found that 
the decrease by desertion was much less than had been re- 
presented to him at Bannockburn, the number being only a 
thousand less than at the battle of Falkirk. 1 The enemies 
of Lord George Murray suspected him, and the others who 
had recommended the retreat, of deception ; but it is pro- 
bable that the army had been considerably increased during 
the last two days by the return of parties straggling in the 
country passed through. At a council now held some warm 
altercations took place. Lord George Murray had been 
incensed at the manner of the march from Bannockburn, 
and demanded to know who was blameable for it. Charles, 
to maintain peace, said he would take the blame of it upon 
himself. 2 It was determined that, for the sake of subsist- 
ence, the march to the north should be performed in two 
parties ; one of which, consisting- of the clans under Charles's 
command, should take the ordinary military road which 
General Cope had assumed in his northern expedition ; while 
the low-country regiments and horse should be conducted 
by Lord George Murray along the roads by the coast of 
Angus and Aberdeenshire. Inverness was to be the rendez- 
vous. At the time this resolution was taken, the Duke of 
Cumberland was busy, thirty miles behind, in repairing 
the bridge of Stirling for the passage of his troops; one 
arch of that ancient and important structure having been 
destroyed, at an early period of the campaign, by Governor 
Blakeney, to prevent the transmission of supplies to Charles 
from the Highlands. 

1 Maxwell of Kirkconnel's Narrative. 

2 Lord George Murray's Narrative. * 



220 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Nothing* could more distinctly prove the individual supe- 
riority of the insurgent army over the king's troops, or 
rather, perhaps, the superiority of their desultory system 
over the formal rules of regular warfare, than the way in 
which they performed their retreat to the north. While 
the Duke of Cumberland had to wait a day for the repair 
of a bridge, and then could only drag his lumbering strength 
over the post roads at the rate of twelve or fourteen miles 
in as many hours, Charles forded rivers, crossed over moors, 
and dared the winter dangers of a hilly country with 
alacrity and promptitude. The present generation has seen 
the same system revived with effect by the great modern 
soldier of the continent ; and it is impossible to give a better 
idea of the surprise with which the duke, on the present 
occasion, beheld the incalculable movements of his anta- 
gonist, than by recalling the perplexity of the old Austrian 
generals on observing the first movements of Bonaparte in 
Italy. 

At the commencement of the pursuit, the duke had been 
little more than a single day's march behind the retiring 
host, but on the sixth day he found this interval to have 
increased threefold. The Highland army had been passing 
through Perth, in straggling parties, during the whole of 
the 2d and 3d of February ; he did not arrive there till the 
6th, when he learned that one party had passed Blair in 
Athole on the direct road to Inverness, while the other was 
just evacuating Montrose, on the route to Aberdeen. He 
then saw fit to discontinue the chase for the present ; the 
weather being extremely unfit for the movements of his 
army, while the Highland hills which now rose to his view 
presented but few inducements for an advance. He con- 
tented himself with fishing up from the bottom of the Tay 
about fourteen guns which the insurgents had spiked and 
thrown into the bed of that river, and with sending out 
parties to plunder and harass the lands of the Perthshire 
insurgents. A vast quantity of cattle, horses, and even 
household goods, taken by the soldiers from the estates and 
houses of the disaffected, were publicly sold by the soldiers 
in Perth while the duke was present. The Duchess of 
Perth and Viscountess of Strathallan were seized in their 
respective houses and carried prisoners to Edinburgh Castle, 
whence they were not released till the ensuing November. 

Before Cumberland had been many days in Perth, intel- 
ligence was brought to him that his brother-in-law, the 
Prince of Hesse, had entered the Firth of Forth with those 
auxiliary troops which, as already mentioned, his majesty 



MARCH TO THE NORTH. 221 

had called over from the continent to aid in suppressing 1 
the insurrection. This armament cast anchor in Leith Roads 
on the 8th of February. The prince landed that night at 
Leith, and was immediately conducted to Holyroodhouse. 
He was attended by the Earl of Crawford, so famous in the 
wars of George II., by a son of the Duke of Wolfenbuttle, 
and by various other distinguished persons. The castle 
greeted his serene highness with a round of great guns ; 
and next day, notwithstanding it was Sunday, the people 
flocked in great numbers to see and congratulate him. His 
troops, which amounted to tive thousand in number, landed 
on that and the succeeding day, and were cantoned in the 
city. 1 

The Duke of Cumberland judged it necessary, on the 
15th, to leave his camp at Perth and pay a hurried visit 
to the prince in Edinburgh. On his arrival, he was hailed 
with the loudest acclamations of the loyal inhabitants, as 
having already cleared the Low country of its disturbers, 
and restored peace where he had lately found civil war. It 
was at this time the general impression that the insurgents, 
dismayed at his approach, had retired into the north only 
to disperse themselves, as Marr and his army had done in 
1716 on the advance of the Duke of Argyle, and that, in 
imitation of his fathers conduct at that time, Charles had 
left the country by one of the ports on the east coast. 

On the evening of his arrival in Edinburgh, the duke 
and the prince held a council of war at the house of the 
Lord Justice-Clerk, to determine their future operations. 
The generals who attended this meeting, imposed upon by 
the popular report, and disposed to flatter the duke, gave it 
unanimously as their opinion that the war was now at an 
end, and that his royal highness had nothing to do but 
send a few parties into the Highlands, as soon as the sea- 
son would permit, who should exterminate all that remained 
of the insurgent force. When these persons had delivered 

1 The Hessian soldiers were remarkably handsome, good-looking men, with 
long fair hair, which they combed whenever they sat down. They acquired 
the affection and esteem of the people who had occasion to mix in their 
society during the ensuing campaign. Their good-nature and pure manners 
were favourably compared with the coarse conversation and dissolute conduct 
of the British soldiery. It may be recorded, for the satisfaction of snuff- 
takers, that the Hessians were the first to introduce the use of black rappee 
into this country, in opposition to the original ' Scotch brown.' It may be 
added, on good authority, as a not less curious fact, that Edinburgh owes all 
the benefit which it derives from that useful institution, Gillespie's Hospital, 
to the same cause ; the two brothers Gillespie, who founded that charit}', 
having commenced the fortune which enabled them to do so by supplying 
the public with the new-fashioned species of snuff, in sufficient quantities, 
and of excellent quality, immediately on the Hessians introducing it. 



222 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

their sentiments, the duke turned to Lord Milton, and de- 
sired to hear his opinion upon the present state of affairs. 
The judge begged to be excused from speaking in an assem- 
bly where his profession did not qualify him ; but his royal 
highness insisted that he should speak, as he knew the 
Highlands and Highlanders better than any man present. 
His lordship then declared it as his opinion that the war 
was not at an end, but that the insurgents would again 
unite their scattered forces, and hazard a battle before 
abandoning the enterprise. 1 The duke, who had already 
seen the bad results of giving up the chase too soon, and 
of demitting the suppression of the insurrection to inferior 
hands, adopted this opinion; and immediately set out to 
rejoin his army, having previously given orders that the 
Hessian troops should follow him with all convenient 
speed. 

The soundness of Lord Milton's opinion was proved by 
what followed. Notwithstanding the weather, and the 
desolation of the country, Charles succeeded in leading his 
force, without diminution, over the Grampians, to the shore 
of the Moray Firth ; Lord George Murray reached the 
same point by the more circuitous route which he had 
adopted through Angus and Aberdeenshire. In his march 
through Badenoch the Prince reduced the small govern- 
ment fort of Ruthven ; and Lord George, in passing Peter- 
head, was reinforced by some dismounted French pickets, 
who had just been landed at that port. The duke pursued 
Lord George's route at a leisurely pace, leaving the Hessians 
to guard the passes at Perth, and having sent on a body of 
troops under Sir Andrew Agnew to garrison the castle of 
Blair. 

It was unfortunate that the commander of the royal army 
should have marched on this occasion through Angus and 
Aberdeenshire, because the symptoms of disaffection which 
he saw in these districts must have given him an extremely 
unfavourable impression of the kingdom in general, and 
had a strong effect in disposing him to treat it, after his 
victory, as a conquered country. Most of the gentlemen, 
throughout Angus at least, he found absent with the insur- 
gent army ; others paid him so little respect, as to recruit 
almost before his eyes. In the town of Forfar, a small 
party of Charles's forces beat up for new adherents on the 
day before he entered the town ; and, being concealed by 
the inhabitants till he had gone past, continued to do the 

1 Home's Works, iii. 178. 



MARCH TO THE NORTH. 223 

same immediately on his back being turned. When he 
lodged at the castle of Glammis, 1 on his troop preparing to 
depart in the morning, it was found that all the girths of 
his horses had been cut during the night, in order to retard 
his march. Afterwards, as he was slowly parading through 
the town of Brechin, hemmed closely in, and retarded by 
an immense crowd which had collected to see him, he ob- 
served a pretty girl standing* on a stair-head, gazing, among 
others of her sex, at the unusual spectacle : it pleased him 
to honour this damsel with a low bow and an elevation of 
the hat. The object of his admiration returned the com- 
pliment by a contemptuous gesture, which does not admit 
of description. Many will be disposed to think that, when 
he found the principles of rebellion revolutionising the 
female heart so far as to render it impervious to flattery, 
he was justifiable in considering the case desperate. 

Having resolved, on reaching Aberdeen, to await the 
return of spring before proceeding farther, he marked his 
sense of the disaffection of this part of the country by sub- 
jecting part of it to the terrors of military law. A gentle- 
man named Ferrier had raised about two hundred men for 
the service of the chevalier throughout the braes of Angus, 
where, establishing a sort of camp, he laid the country under 
contribution even to the gates of Brechin. The duke de- 
spatched a party, which, not satisfied with expelling Ferrier, 
treated the country with excessive severity, mulcting all 
whom they could convict of Jacobitism, and burning the 
whole of the Episcopal meeting-houses. l It cost some 
pains/ observes the Scots Magazine very gravely, ' to save 
Glenesk from being burnt from end to end, being a nest of 
Jacobites.' 

On Sunday the 16th of February, Charles reached Moy 
Hall, the seat of the Laird of Mackintosh, about sixteen 
miles from Inverness. The laird was absent on duty as a 
partisan of the government. The lady, who, as already 
mentioned, had raised the clan for the Prince, received him 
and his immediate attendants with great hospitality. Charles 
designed to rest here until his men should come up, before 
going nearer to Inverness, where the Earl of Loudoun 
had about seventeen hundred men in arms. Some one — 
suspected to be Grant of Dalrachny — sent information to 
Lord Loudoun that Charles was lodging at Moy Hall with 

1 The Strathmore family, proprietors of this noble old seat, were Jacohites, 
though not engaged in the insurrection of 1745. So unwelcome a guest was 
the Duke of Cumberland, that orders were given, after he departed, to take 
down the bed in which he slept. 



224 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

a slender retinue; and the earl immediately formed the 
design of marching thither, in order to take him prisoner. 
Notwithstanding the exertions he made to keep the scheme 
a secret, it became known to the dowager Lady Mackintosh, 
who lived in Inverness, and who immediately despatched a 
messenger to put her daughter-in-law and the Prince on 
their guard. Meanwhile, in the evening, 1500 men had 
taken the road for Moy under the conduct of the earl. The 
messenger, a boy named Lachlan Mackintosh, tried to pass 
through the army on the road ; but finding this difficult, 
and dreading that he might be arrested, he lay down in a 
ditch by the wayside till all had passed, and then bounded 
off by a circuitous road towards Moy. About five in the 
morning (Monday, 17th February) he reached the house 
* in a top-sweat/ bearing information that the Earl of Lou- 
doun's men were little more than a mile distant. The guard 
instantly awoke the Prince, who dressed quickly, and came 
down to the courtyard. Lady Mackintosh appeared there 
likewise, i in her smock petticoat,' for it was no time for 
delicacy, and exerted herself to get the Prince and his guard 
sent to a place of safety, and all his valuable effects put out 
of the way. He went along the bank of Moy Loch to a place 
more than a mile off, where he met Locheil and a party of 
his troops, with whom he resolved to stand his ground in 
case of an attack. Meanwhile Lord Loudoun's expedition 
had experienced a strange interruption. Lady Mackintosh 
had, the night before, sent out a patrolling party, consisting 
of Hve men, armed with muskets, to keep guard on the road 
towards Inverness. The head of the party was a clever 
fellow named Fraser, the blacksmith of Moy. When he 
became aware of the approach of a great body of men along 
the road, he instantly comprehended the design in view. 
Planting his men at intervals by the wayside, he fired his 
piece at the head of the approaching body, and by the shot 
killed the Laird of Macleod's piper, reputed the best of his 
time in the Highlands. The other men also fired, convey- 
ing the impression of a wide-spread body of opponents. The 
blacksmith was then heard crying upon the Camerons and 
Macdonalds to advance on the villains who designed to 
murder their Prince. The van of the advancing troops 
immediately fell into a panic, and, turning back with pre- 
cipitation, they threw the rear into confusion, oversetting 
and trampling many as they went along. The whole army 
became inspired with the same terror, and fled amain to 
Inverness, where they arrived in a state of extreme distress 
from bruises, exhaustion, and mortification of mind. The 



MARCH TO THE NORTH. 225 

Master of Koss, who was present as an officer, and after- 
wards passed through a long" life as a soldier, subject to 
perils of all kinds, was heard in his latter days to declare 
that in all his career he had never known a situation so 
grievous as that in which he was at the rout of Moy. Infor- 
mation of the gallant exploit of the blacksmith soon reached 
Prince Charles, who immediately returned to Moy Hall. 1 

He this day gathered a sufficient number of his forces to 
enable him to advance on the next to Inverness. Mean- 
while Lord Loudoun found it necessary to withdraw from 
that town. "When the insurgents drew near (Tuesday, 
February 18), they found the Independent Companies mak- 
ing the best of their way across the Firth by the Kessock 
Ferry. The Highlanders entered a vacant town, and the 
earl's troops retired into Ross-shire. 

Inverness, now a flourishing town of nine or ten thousand 
inhabitants, where all the refinements and many of the 
elegancies of city life are to be met with, appears, from a 
publication of the period, 2 to have been then only such a 
town as could be expected in the vicinity of a Highland 
and half-civilised territory — a royal burgh, yet not eman- 
cipated from feudal domination ; a seaport, but possessing 
only a slight local commerce ; confined in its dimensions, 
limited in population, and poor in its resources. A coach 
had never, at this time, been seen at Inverness ; nor was 
there a turnpike road within forty miles of its walls. The 
only advancement which it could be said to have made in 
civilisation was occasioned by the English garrison main- 
tained in its fort by government, and by a few of the High- 
land gentry, who resided in it during the winter. It was 
in the town-house of one of these, Lady Drummuir, mother 
of the Lady Mackintosh — which, as appears, was then the 
only house in Inverness that had a room ungraced by a 
bed — that the young chevalier took up his residence. 

Though Charles thus easily obtained possession of Inver- 
ness, the fort still held out against him. Fort-George, for 
such was its name, had been established at the revolution 
upon the site of the ancient castle of Inverness — the scene 
of Duncan's murder in Shakspeare, if not in fact. A tall 
massive tower, reared upon an eminence, the sides of which 
were protected by bastions — commanding the town on one 
hand, and the bridge over the Ness on another — formed the 
whole of this place of strength, which had cost government 
altogether about £50,000 in its construction and main- 



1 Home's History. Jacobite Memoirs. 

2 Burt's Letters from the North of Scotland. 



VOL. V. 



226 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

tenance. On the present occasion it was garrisoned by a 
company of Grants under the Laird of Rothiemurchus, a 
company of Maeleods, and eighty regular troops, and 
had a sufficient store of ammunition and provisions. 

The Highlanders, who had the greatest possible dislike 
to the government forts, were highly gratified when, after 
a siege of two days, this fell into their hands. Sixteen 
pieces of cannon, and a hundred barrels of beef, accompanied 
the rendition. The destruction of the fort, which was im- 
mediately ordered by the Prince, was not effected without 
loss. The French engineer who was charged with this 
duty, thinking the match was extinguished, approached to 
examine it, when the explosion took place, and carried him 
up into the air along with the stones of the bastion. 

Before the capture of Fort-George, which took place on 
the 20th of February, Lord George Murray arrived with 
his column, after a very painful march through a country 
covered with snow. The army was now once more com- 
plete. The whole of the Lowland territory on the shore of 
the Moray Firth, besides all the adjacent Highlands, to the 
distance of a hundred miles from Inverness, was in the 
hands of the insurgents ; but the duke interposed on one 
side, and the Hessians on another, to prevent all commu- 
nication with the south ; while Lord Loudoun hung with 
his native troops still nearer in a contrary direction. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

PROCEEDINGS IN THE NORTH. 

' The north ! what do they in the north ? ' 

Richard III. 

Though their retreat before the face of the king's troops 
was virtually a confession of weakness, the Highland army 
was still determined to maintain the war with all possible 
vigour, hopeful that French succours would arrive in time 
to give them a victory. They determined that, while Cum- 
berland waited at Aberdeen for the advance of spring, they 
should improve their position by a series of minor enter- 
prises, such as the troops were fitted to perform in that 
country and in the existing state of the weather. These, in 
general, turned out in a manner remarkably creditable to 
the army. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE NORTH. 227 

Immediately after the capture of Fort-George, Charles 
sent three hundred of the Irish pickets, under Brigadier 
Stapleton, to lay siege to Fort-Augustus, thirty-two miles 
distant. This party, before their artillery could be brought 
through the snow, attacked the old barrack, and carried it 
immediately; the garrison, which consisted of three com- 
panies of Guise's regiment, retiring into the fort. A trench 
was opened on the 3d of March, and on the second day 
thereafter, the powder magazine chancing to explode, the 
garrison was compelled to surrender. The party then pro- 
ceeded to Fort-William, where they were joined by the 
Camerons, Keppoch Macdonalds, and Stuarts of Appin, 
under Locheil; but, owing to delays occasioned by the diffi- 
culty of transporting the cannon, they were not ready to 
commence the siege of this more important fortress till the 
20th of March. By the Irish and Highlanders united, the 
most vigorous attempts were made to obtain possession of 
the place, but without avail. On the 3d of April they were 
under the necessity of retiring, in order to join the army 
at Inverness, in anticipation of the approach of the royal 
army. 

Early in March, the Prince despatched the Earl of Crom- 
arty with a large detachment to beat up the quarters of Lord 
Loudoun in Boss-shire. The party consisted of the earl's 
own regiment of Mackenzies, the Mackintoshes, the small 
regiment of Mackinnons, the Macgregors, and the men com- 
manded by Macdonald of Barrisdale. It was perhaps insuffi- 
cient in point of numbers for the enterprise ; but a greater 
deficiency seems to have been found in the commander, who 
left his men for a couple of days at Dingwall, while he went 
home to his own house. The Prince, hearing no good 
accounts of the detachment, sent Lord George Murray to 
take the command, who, immediately advancing with it to 
Tain, found, to his surprise, that Lord Loudoun's troops had 
passed the Firth of Dornoch into Sutherland two days 
before, without the Earl of Cromarty having obtained any 
intelligence of the fact, though he was in what the High- 
landers emphatically called his own country. Lord George 
then consulted with the officers, and it was agreed that the 
enemy could not with propriety be followed by land, as, 
before it would be possible to turn the head of the Firth and 
attack Lord Loudoun, that nobleman might easily cross 
again into Boss-shire, leaving them in such a position with 
respect to Inverness, that they might be unable to join the 
army before the expected engagement with the royal troops. 
It was at the same time agreed that, if they could procure 



228 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

boats to cross the Firth, they might attack Lord Loudoun, 
and the more effectively if they could cross before he 
was aware. With a view to such a movement, they deter- 
mined not to advance to Tain, which would have the effect 
of keeping up his vigilance, but to retire to Dingwall, 
where they were within a day's march both of Tain and 
Inverness. 

Lord George now returned to head-quarters, and the 
further prosecution of the enterprise was intrusted to the 
Duke of Perth. As a preliminary step, a great number of 
fishing-boats were collected from the Morayshire coast, and 
brought to Findhorn; and this with such secrecy, or so 
much under favour of the popular spirit of the district, that 
no friend of government had the least suspicion of the 
design. To avoid the government vessels cruising on the 
Moray Firth, Moir of Stoneywood carried this flotilla 
across to the shore near Tain in the course of a single night. 
The Duke of Perth had his party conducted to the spot, and 
immediately embarked a large portion of it, while the other 
proceeded to the head of the Firth, to intercept the enemy in 
that direction. A fog favoured the passage of the troops, 
who landed within a few miles of Dornoch, the position of 
the Earl of Loudoun's forces, without his lordship having the 
least suspicion of their approach. As they were advancing 
along the coast, they encountered a party of two hundred, 
some of whom fled back to the main body. Instead of fall- 
ing upon this party at once, and pushing on for Dornoch, 
they entered into a tedious parley with it, ending in its capi- 
tulation, but destroying the opportunity of surprising Lord 
Loudoun's army. It is not improbable that this procedure 
was in consequence of an anxiety entertained by individuals 
in the detachment to avoid, if at all possible, a hostile collision 
with troops amongst whom were some of their own nearest 
relatives. The Chevalier Johnstone informs us that at least 
Macdonald of Scothouse, the first cadet of the house of Clan- 
ranald, was under feelings of this kind, having a son who 
served as an officer under Lord Loudoun. Meanwhile this 
nobleman, accompanied by the Lord President Forbes, led 
off the main body of his army towards the central fastnesses 
of Sutherland, whither he was eagerly but vainly pursued 
by the Duke of Perth, who did not halt till he reached the 
head of Loch Shin. 

By this event the Independent Companies, upon whom 
Forbes had expended so much zeal and exertion, were com- 
pletely broken up. The Mackays now returned to their 
own country. The Macleods withdrew to Skye, where 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE NORTH. 229 

Loudoun and Forbes were glad to find a refuge. The Duke 
of Perth then returned with most of the insurgent troops 
to Inverness, leaving only the Earl of Cromarty, with a 
comparatively small detachment, to keep the loyalists of 
Sutherland in check. 

Lord John Drummond was posted at Fochabers, on the 
east bank of the Spey, in command of a detachment of 
troops, some of which he placed at Cullen, others at Strath- 
bogie. In this party was the well-disciplined regiment of 
John Roy Stuart, together with such of the native cavalry 
as had been kept together. Till the middle of March, these 
troops were not disturbed by the king's forces. At that 
time the Duke of Cumberland sent forward a large body of 
troops to take possession of a line of posts between the Dee 
and Spey. This had very nearly occasioned the destruction 
of the Strathbogie party. On the afternoon of the 17th, 
they were returning fatigued from a fruitless march against 
the young Laird of Grant, when they found the village on 
the point of falling- into the hands of the enemy. The com- 
manders were at first puzzled whether to retire immediately, 
leaving the stragglers to take their chance, or to pause and 
endeavour to concentrate their strength for a deliberate 
retreat. By adopting the latter plan, they gave confidence 
to their men. The whole party then made a skilful and safe 
retreat in the very face of the enemy, first to Keith, and 
afterwards to Fochabers. Mr Maxwell of Kirkconnel, in 
noticing this affair, says, 'The intrepidity of the common 
men was very remarkable ; they had seen themselves closely 
pursued by an enemy vastly superior; nevertheless, even 
after night came on, [when] a fresh alarm was given at Keith, 
they all repaired to their colours, and marched off in good 
order.'* Lord John Drummond, now supposing that Cum- 
berland was in full march towards the Spey, withdrew be- 
hind that river. 

While posted there, Lord John sent detachments across 
the river every day to make demonstrations before the 
enemy, and patrol on the road between Fochabers and 
Keith. On the 20th, the detachment returned earlier than 
usual, apparently under an alarm from the appearance of a 
large body of the royal troops. This was in reality a feint 
to mislead the enemy, and with a view to surprising his 
advanced guard in the village of Keith during the ensuing 
night. Fifty picked men of Stuart's regiment, under Cap- 
tain Robert Stewart, younger of Glenlivet, with some French 
troops, the whole commanded by Major Glasgow, crossed 
the Spey in the evening, and advancing stealthily, arrived 



230 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

about one in the morning" at Keith, which they surrounded, 
without giving the least alarm. The troops posted there 
consisted of seventy Campbells and thirty of Kingston's 
dragoons. The sentinel, a Campbell, was seized and si- 
lenced ; a Lieutenant Simpson swept round the place with 
a few horse ; and Major Glasgow, with the remainder of the 
party, boldly entered the street. The French, finding a 
guard in the school, discharged upon them a platoon. At 
the same time a vigorous attack was made upon the main 
body of the Campbells, who were posted in the parish church. 
The dragoons fought in the street, but were soon over- 
powered. For some time the Campbells kept up a brisk 
fire from the church, but were also obliged to yield. No 
triumph on so small a scale could have been more complete. 
With the loss of one Frenchman, and at the expense of a 
few wounds, they secured the whole party, except five or 
six who escaped. On the government side there were nine 
killed, and a considerable number wounded. Before day- 
break, Major Glasgow had returned from this clever little 
affair to head quarters with eighty prisoners. 

Of the transactions of this period, none was more bril- 
liant than an expedition into Athole, executed by Lord 
George Murray. It has already been said that the Duke 
of Cumberland subjected Angus to military execution; his 
detachments in the upper part of Perthshire treated that 
country with even greater severity. As already mentioned, 
the mother of the Duke of Perth, and the wife of Viscount 
Strathallan, for the crime of having relations in the insur- 
gent army, were seized in their own houses, and hurried to 
Edinburgh Castle, where they remained prisoners for nine 
months in a small, unhealthy room. All the houses whose 
proprietors had gone with Prince Charles were burnt, or 
retained for quarters to the military ; the unhappy tenants 
being in either case expelled, to starve upon the snowy 
heath. When Lord George heard of this at Inverness, he 
resolved to succour his country from its oppressors. Having 
taken care to secure all the passes, so as to prevent his in- 
tentions from becoming known to the enemy, he set out 
about the middle of March with seven hundred men, none 
of whom knew the precise object of the expedition. On the 
evening of the 10th, having reached Dalnaspidal, upon the 
confines of Athole, a halt was called, and the whole body 
divided into a number of small parties. Lord George then 
informed them that he wished to surprise all the different 
posts of the royal troops before daylight, and as nearly as 
possible at the same time; for which purpose each party 



PROCEEDINGS IX THE NORTH. 231 

should select a post for whose strength it might be propor- 
tioned; and the general rendezvous, after all was done, was 
to be the Bridge of Bruar, two miles from Blair. The 
chief posts to be attacked were Bun-Rannoch, the house of 
Kynnachin, the house of Blairfettie, the house of Lude, the 
house of Faskally, and the inn of Blair; besides which, 
there were some of less strength and importance. 

The parties set out immediately, each taking the shortest 
way to its respective post, and most of them reached the 
various points of attack before daybreak. At Bun-Rannoch, 
where there happened to be a late-wake 1 that night, the 
garrison (a party of Argyleshire men) were surprised in the 
midst of their enjoyment, and made prisoners without ex- 
change of shot. The sentinel of Kynnachin being more 
vigilant, and having alarmed the party within, that house 
was not taken till after a short resistance, and the slaughter 
of one man. At Blairfettie the whole party was surprised, 
including the sentinel, and made prisoners after a brief but 
ineffectual resistance. The garrisons of Lude and Faskally 
were taken in the same manner; and only at the inn of 
Blair did the party attacked baffle the Highlanders, or 
succeed in making their escape. 

This last party taking refuge in the castle of Blair, its 
governor, Sir Andrew Agnew, immediately got his men 
under arms, and marched out to see who they were that 
had attacked his posts. It was now nearly daybreak, and 
Lord George Murray stood at the place of rendezvous with 
only four-and-twenty men, anxiously waiting the return of 
the various parties. Fortunately, he received intelligence 
by a countryman of the approach of Sir Andrew. He 
hastily consulted with his attendants ; some advised an im- 
mediate retreat along the road to Dalwhinnie ; others were 
for crossing over the hills, and gaining a place of safety, by 
paths where they could not be pursued. By either of these 
plans the insurgent parties, as they returned, would have 
been successively cut off or made prisoners. Lord George, 
therefore, rejected them, and bethought him of a better 
expedient. Observing a long turf wall in a field near the 
bridge, he ordered his men to ensconce themselves behind it, 
lying at a considerable distance from each other, and dis- 
playing the colours of the whole party at still greater inter- 
vals. Fortunately, he had with him all the pipers of the 
corps ; these he ordered, as soon as they saw Sir Andrew's 
men appear, to strike up their most boisterous pibroch. The 
rest he commanded to brandish their swords over the wall. 
1 The festivity which attends the watching over a corpse. 



232 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

The Blair garrison happened to appear just as the sun 
rose above the horizon ; and Lord George's orders being* 
properly obeyed, the men stood still, seriously alarmed at 
the preparations which seemed to have been made for their 
reception. After listening half a minute to the tumult of 
bagpipes, and casting a brief glance at the glittering broad- 
swords, they turned back (by order of their commander, 
however), and hastily sought shelter within the walls of the 
castle. The Highland leader, delighted with the success of 
his manoeuvre, kept post at the bridge till about the half of 
his men had arrived, and then proceeded to invest Blair. 

When rejoined by all his men, Lord George found that 
no fewer than thirty different posts had been surprised that 
morning, between the hours of three and five, without the 
loss of a single man. The same success, however, did not 
attend his deliberate siege, which he was obliged to raise on 
the 31st of March, after having only reduced the garrison 
to great distress for want of provisions. 1 

There is much truth in what a judicious observer has said 
regarding this portion of the Prince's expedition — that it is 
what most deserves the attention of reflecting persons. In 
military affairs, a victory dazzles common minds : the judi- 
cious inquire if the best use is made of means towards a 
desired end; and where they find this to be the case, whether 
with telling results or not, they give their approbation. 
Now, excepting at Fort- William, the small army of the 
Prince was employed with remarkable skill, and to ex- 
tremely good purpose, during the whole of this spring. He 
could not, however, create force which did not exist, or 
remedy the evils inflicted by fortune. During all this time 
he was embarrassed by want of money. Besides fifteen hun- 
dred pounds of Spanish money, which was found in the 
neighbourhood of Montrose, he had no foreign supplies ; and 
in the country itself his pecuniary resources were extremely 
narrow. Irregularities in the payment of his army tended 
of course to its disorganisation. He had hopes of supplies 
from France. At his retreat from Stirling, a gentleman had 
gone thither to direct the landing of friendly vessels in the 
district which he expected to possess between Inverness and 
Aberdeen. Several vessels, with both troops and money, 

1 The British army never perhaps contained a man more insensible to fear 
than Sir Andrew Agnew. He possessed, at the same time, a sort of uncouth 
humour, which rendered him altogether a most remarkable person. During 
the siege of Blair, when Lord George was ineffectually battering the walls 
with two little cannon, he one day looked over the battlements, and observ- 
ing the slight impression made by the balls, cried ironically, * I daresay the 
man's mad— knocking down his own brother's house !' 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE NORTH. 233 

were consequently conducted to that coast ; but the diffi- 
culties of landing amongst the English cruisers proved 
insuperable. They either returned, or fell into the hands of 
the enemy. There was one particular vessel, the loss of 
which occurred in circumstances so galling, that a few details 
may be ventured upon. 

In the latter part of November, the Hazard sloop of war, 
carrying sixteen guns, twenty-four swivels, and about eighty 
men, and commanded by Captain Hill, came into Montrose 
harbour, apparently for the purpose of punishing the town 
for its eminent services to the Prince, as a port for the recep- 
tion of his French succours. The vessel, anchoring in the 
strait close by the town, fired upon it, although no troops of 
the chevalier were present. The commander also seized 
three barques, of which he burned two, and put some guns 
into the other, that it might add to his powers of annoyance. 
Brechin was at this time occupied by a remarkably active 
and clever partisan of the Prince, the same David Ferrier 
who has been already mentioned as at a later period form- 
ing a camp on the Braes of Angus, and laying the whole 
country under contribution for the Stuart cause. Ferrier, 
and a Captain Erskine associated with him (a brother of 
Erskine of Dun), came down to Montrose with their men, 
and took post, one of them at the town, and the other on an 
island near the Hazard. Fortunately, a French vessel at 
this time appeared near the harbour, into which she was 
directed by signals from Captain Ferrier. She proved to 
have a hundred and fifty of Lord John Drummond's troops 
on board, with some cannon and stores. Ferrier landed six 
cannon, which he planted on convenient places commanding 
the Hazard. The vessel which had been taken and forti- 
fied by the Hazard had been left at the quay, so that it fell 
into his hands. He took the cannon from that vessel, and 
planted it on an eminence called the Dial-hill. For a whole 
night he bombarded the English vessel, so that in the morn- 
ing her captain was glad to send a flag of truce, requesting 
leave to go out to sea. This was refused, and the commander 
then gave her up to Ferrier, who immediately took pos- 
session of her in the name of Mr Carnegie of Balnamoon, 
governor of Forfarshire for the Prince. 1 

The Hazard was afterwards despatched to France as a 
snow, under the name of ' the Prince Charles/ and was re- 
turning to Scotland with about £13,000, and other valuable 
supplies, when she was observed and chased by the Sheerness 

1 Narrative from the mouth of Captain Erskine, Jacobite Memoirs, p. 112. 



234 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

man-of-war. The place where the rencontre happened was 
near the northern extremity of Scotland, where a dangerous 
sea boils round a bold high coast, affording" no port or place 
of shelter. The crew, unwilling* to hazard their cargo by an 
action, made all sail to escape the guns of the Sheerness, 
which, however, kept so close, as to kill thirty-six of the men. 
After a day's chase, the Prince Charles ran in upon the 
sands of Melness, on the west side of Tongue Bay, where she 
was safe from the Sheerness, but not, as it soon appeared, 
from a more deadly enemy. 

On the opposite side of this bay was the mansion of Lord 
Reay, where a considerable party of the troops of the Earl 
of Loudoun had taken refuge. On learning that the crew 
of the Prince Charles had landed with treasure, Lord 
Reay sent a boat across the bay to learn particulars ; and 
when he found that the French were not powerful in number, 
he resolved to attack them. Next day (March 26), as they 
were on their way to Inverness with their treasure, under 
the conduct of Mr Mackay, younger of Melness, they were 
beset by fifty Mackays under his lordship's steward, and as 
many of Lord Loudoun's troops ; and a fierce but brief con- 
flict took place, during which a few of the French were 
killed, and some wounded. The foreign party then sur- 
rendered, consisting of twenty officers, and a hundred and 
twenty soldiers and sailors. The treasure fell into the 
hands of the victors. 

'Amidst all these misfortunes,' says Mr Maxwell, 'the 
Prince kept up his spirits wonderfully : he appeared gayer 
even than usual ; he gave frequent balls to the ladies of In- 
verness, and danced himself, which he had declined doing 
at Edinburgh in the midst of his grandeur and prosperity.' 
He remained in this town the whole time between the 20th 
of February and the 10th of April, excepting eleven days in 
the middle of March, during which he visited Elgin and Gor- 
don Castle. At the latter town he was ill, and in danger for 
two days ; when, as Colonel Warren informs the old cheva- 
lier in a letter, c a timely bleeding hindered the cold turning 
into a fluxion de poitrine, and caused a joy in every heart 
not to be expressed.' Towards the end of this period, in- 
telligence arrived that he was no longer to entertain any 
expectation of a regular armament from France, as not only 
the contemplated embarkation at Boulogne, but that more 
recently designed at Dunkirk, was now given up. It must 
have been a stunning blow to the little army, if anything 
can truly dishearten men of their order, ever the dupes of 
their wishes and their convictions. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE NORTH. 235 

The Duke of Cumberland remained from the 25th of 
February till the 8th of April at Aberdeen. In his letters 
he expressed the sentiments with which an acquaintance 
with Scotland had filled him. The people, he said, were 
almost to a man Jacobites. Even the loyalists were of little 
service to him. He could get no intelligence, and reckoned 
himself more in an enemy's country than when he was 
warring* with the French in Flanders. Mild measures with 
such a country would not do. c You will find/ says he to 
the Duke of Newcastle, * that the whole of the laws of this 
ancient kingdom must be new-modelled. Were I to enu- 
merate the villains and vallanies this country abounds in, 
I should never have done.' It is a pity that he did not at 
least enumerate certain dubious acts committed by William, 
Duke of Cumberland, and Lieutenant-General Henry Haw- 
ley, of which the world wanted a right account for eighty 
years. It appears that the former commander occupied the 
house of a Mr Thomson, a legal practitioner, using all the 
provisions it contained, with coal and candle, without mak- 
ing the least compensation ; while Hawley took possession 
of that belonging to Mrs Gordon of Halhead, and not only 
used the lady's tea, linen, and china, without remuneration, 
but, on going away, carried off all these articles, and every- 
thing else portable, with, to all appearance, the concurrence 
of the commander-in-chief — for the china was afterwards 
recognised in the shop of a London broker, who mentioned 
that he had got it from an infamous female, who stated that 
it had been given to her by the Duke of Cumberland. 

The weather continued, till the beginning of April, to be 
unfavourable for the march of regular troops. But about 
that time a few days of dry cold wind, sweeping away the 
snow from the hills, and drying the rivers, rendered it 
possible to proceed without much difficulty, and the duke 
accordingly ordered a march upon the 8th. He had been 
by this time supplied with a fleet of victualling ships, which 
were to sail along the coast, and send provisions on shore as 
required by the army. His host, comprising fifteen foot 
regiments, two of dragoons, with Kingston's horse, a body 
of Argyleshire Highlanders, and a detachment of Lord 
Loudoun's regiment, which had been shipped over from 
Boss, amounted altogether to about nine thousand men. 

His royal highness reached Banff upon the 10th, en- 
camping in the neighbourhood of the town. Two Highland 
spies were here seized, one of them in the act of notching 

1 Full and well-authenticated particulars of these misdeeds are given in the 
Jacobite Memoirs, from the papers of Bishop Forbes. 



236 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the numbers of the army upon a stick, according to a fashion 
which also obtains among" the North American Indians. 
They were both hanged. On the 11th, the army moved 
forward to Cullen, where the Earl of Findlater testified his 
loyalty by distributing two hundred guineas among the 
troops. Strict orders were here issued to the men not to 
stir out of the camp upon pain of death. During this 
day's march the army, keeping constantly upon the shore, 
were closely accompanied by the fleet. The weather was 
also good, and the men were cheered by the prospect of 
crossing the Spey without difficulty. 

This great mountain-stream, so remarkable for its depth 
and rapidity, had hitherto been esteemed by Charles's army 
as almost a sufficient barrier between them and the Duke of 
Cumberland, and as, indeed, completely protecting their 
country upon the east. Charles had, several weeks before, 
instructed Lord John Drummond to defend the fords ; 
and some batteries were raised, which it was expected might 
accomplish that object. But on the duke approaching with 
a quantity of cannon sufficient to force the passage, Lord 
John abandoned a position which he had not the power to 
maintain, and fell back upon Inverness. It is generally 
esteemed to have been a leading error in the commanders 
of the insurgent army to have so easily permitted the royal 
troops to surmount this grand barrier. But as the duke, 
with the assistance of his cannon, must have forced his way 
in spite of their efforts, it was perhaps best to permit him 
to pass without bloodshed. Lord George Murray was of 
this opinion, and is said to have urged it with the over-con- 
fident exclamation, c The more of the elector's men come 
over, there will be the fewer to return ! ' 

The royal army forded the Spey upon the afternoon of 
Saturday the 12th of April. For this purpose the troops 
were divided into three bodies, one of which crossed at 
Garmouth, another near Gordon Castle, and a third close 
by the church of Belly. The men had the water up to their 
waists ; but such was the ease with which the operation was 
conducted, that only one dragoon and four women were 
swept away by the stream. 

The duke encamped this evening upon the banks of the 
river, opposite to Fochabers, himself lodging in the manse 
of Belly. He marched next day (Sunda}^) through Elgin to 
the muir of Alves, where he was little more than thirty 
miles from Inverness. The march of next day brought him 
to Nairn, which was only sixteen miles from the position of 
the insurgents. On arriving at the bridge which gives en- 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 237 

trance to this town from the east, the vanguard found it not 
yet evacuated by the rearguard of the party which had at- 
tempted to defend the Spey. Some firing took place from 
both ends of the bridge ; but at last the insurgents retired, 
without much harm having been done on either side. The 
advancing party gave chase for several miles ; but the Prince 
coming up unexpectedly with a reinforcement, the other in 
its turn retreated. 

During the loth, which was the duke's birthday, the 
army lay inactive in their camp at Nairn ; and as each man 
had an allowance of brandy, cheese, and biscuit, at the duke's 
expense, the day was spent with appropriate festivity. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 

The day approached, when fortune should decide 
The important enterprise. Dryden. 

On Monday the 14th, when intelligence reached Inver- 
ness of the royal army having crossed the Spey, Charles 
rode out towards Nairn to support his retiring party, but 
returned to Inverness before the evening. He then com- 
manded the drums to be beat, and the pipes to be played 
through the town, in order to collect his men. When they 
had assembled in the streets, he walked backwards and for- 
wards through their lines, and endeavoured to animate 
them for the action w r hich seemed impending. 1 

They hailed his appearance, and received his addresses 
with their usual enthusiasm ; and, in the midst of the huzza 
which ensued, many voices exclaimed, c We'll give Cum- 
berland another Fontenoy ! ' He then mounted his horse, 
and, with colours flying- and pipes playing, led them out 
to the parks around Culloden House, three or four miles 
from the town, where they prepared to bivouac for the 
night. 2 

At six o'clock in the morning of the 15th, the army was 
led forward to Drummossie Muir (about a mile still farther 
from Inverness, in an easterly direction), and there drawn 
up in battle order to receive the Duke of Cumberland, who 

1 The Young Chevalier, or a Genuine Narrative of all that befell the unfor- 
tunate Adventurer, &c. 8vo. London : p. 2. 

2 Lockhart Papers, ii. 518. 



\ 



238 HISTORY OP THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

was expected to march this day from Nairn. Charles's 
force at this time was much smaller than it had been at 
Falkirk, amounting' to only about six thousand men. He 
had issued orders some time before to the parties dispersed 
throughout the country, commanding- them immediately to 
join ; but the Frasers, the Keppoch Macdonalds, Macpher- 
sons, Macgregors, some recruits of Glengarry, and the 
Mackenzies, raised by the Earl of Cromarty, were still 
absent. Under these circumstances, it was with some satis- 
faction that Charles learned the delay made by the enemy 
at Nairn, which seemed to promise time for the augmen- 
tation of his host. 

The scarcity of provisions had now become so great, that 
the men were on this important day reduced to the miserable 
allowance of only one small loaf, and that of the worst kind. 
Strange as the averment may appear, I have beheld and 
tasted a piece of the bread served out on this occasion ; being 
the remains of a loaf, or bannock, which had been carefully 
preserved for eighty-one years by the successive members 
of a Jacobite family. It is impossible to imagine a com- 
position of greater coarseness, or less likely either to please 
or satisfy the appetite ; and perhaps no recital, however 
eloquent, of the miseries to which Charles's army was re- 
duced, could have impressed the reader with so strong an 
idea of the real extent of that misery as the sight of this 
singular relic. Its ingredients appeared to be merely the 
husks of oats, and a coarse unclean species of dust, similar 
to what is found upon the floors of a mill. 

During the afternoon of this day, many of the troops, 
unable to subsist upon provision at once so small in quan- 
tity and so wretched in quality, left their position, and either 
retired to Inverness, or roamed abroad through the country 
in search of more substantial food. Before the evening, 
those who remained had the mortification of seeing the 
victual-ships of the enemy enter the narrow arm of the sea 
which skirted their position, as if to tantalise them with 
the sight of a feast which it was not in their power to 
taste. 

Drummossie Muir is a large heathy and mossy flat, two 
miles inland from the south shore of the Moray Firth, five 
miles distant from Inverness, and ten or twelve from Nairn. 
When the insurgents stood with their faces towards the 
Duke of Cumberland's camp at Nairn, they had Inverness 
behind them, a barrier of mountains, with the river Nairn 
intervening, on the right hand, and the sea, with the parks 
of Culloden, on the left. 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 239 

Lord George Murray states, in his narrative, 1 that he 
greatly disapproved of the position assumed by the army — 
as many persons of military experience have done since his 
time, on visiting the ground, including in this number 
Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum. The surprise which 
most persons feel on visiting the ground becomes the greater, 
when it is observed that, in the immediate neighbourhood, 
on the south side of the river Nairn, there is a piece of 
ground, of an undulating and boggy character, where the 
Highlanders could have taken up a most favourable position, 
totally inaccessible to the enemy's horse and cannon. Lord 
George states that, on the 15th, at his desire, Brigadier 
Stapleton and Colonel Ker of Graden inspected this ground, 
and spoke favourably of it; but the dread lest the royal 
army might pass on and take possession of Inverness, pre- 
vented the proposal from being adopted. It has been insi- 
nuated that Charles was here guided by his tutor Sheridan 
and the French officers, who dreaded a hill campaign on 
their own account; but, in reality, the desire of covering 
Inverness appears to have been the chief reason for the step 
which was taken, Charles being, for his own part, inclined 
to it by his general anxiety for fighting, and the blind con- 
fidence he reposed in the prowess of his mountaineers. It 
also appears that O'Sullivan, who selected the ground, had 
a good opinion of it, on account of the bogs and marshes 
by which it was interspersed. 

There yet remained, before playing the great stake of a 
pitched battle, one chance of success by the irregular mode 
of warfare to which the army was accustomed, and Charles 
resolved to put it to trial. This was a night-attack upon 
the camp of the Duke of Cumberland. He rightly argued, 
that if his men could approach without being discovered, 
and make a simultaneous attack in more than one place, 
the royal forces, then probably either engaged in drinking 
their commander's healthy or sleeping off the effects of the 
debauch, must be completely surprised and cut to pieces, 
or at least effectually routed. The time appointed for setting 
out upon the march was eight in the evening, when day- 
light should have completely disappeared ; and in the mean- 
time great pains were taken to conceal the secret from the 
army. 

This resolution was entered into at three in the afternoon, 
and orders were immediately given to collect the men who 
had gone off in search of provisions. The officers dispersed 

1 Jacobite Memoirs. 



240 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

themselves to Inverness and other places, and beseeched the 
stragglers to repair to the muir. But, under the influence 
of hunger, they told their commanders to shoot them if they 
pleased, rather than compel them to starve any longer. 
When the time came, therefore, little more than half of the 
army could be assembled. Charles had previously declared, 
with his characteristic fervour, that though only a thousand 
of his men would accompany him, he would lead them on 
to the attack ; and he was not now intimidated when he 
saw twice that number ready to assist in the enterprise; 
though some of his officers would willingly have made this 
deficiency of troops an excuse for abandoning what they 
esteemed at best a hazardous expedition. Having given 
out for watchword the name of his father, 1 he embraced 
Lord George Murray, who was to command the foremost 
column, and putting himself at the head of that which 
followed, gave the orders to march. 

The greatest care had been taken to conceal the object 
of this expedition from the mass of the army, lest, being 
communicated by them to the country people, it might 
reach the ears of the enemy. But the Duke of Cumberland 
having, like a prudent general, taken measures, ever since 
he approached the Highlanders, to watch their slightest 
motions, was by no means ignorant of their march towards 
his position, thoug*h he did not apprehend a nocturnal attack. 
He had commissioned various country people, and some of 
his own Highland militiamen, to mingle with their columns, 
and inform him from time to time of the progress they were 
making ; and though he permitted his men to sleep, they 
were instructed to have their arms beside them. He did 
not suppose that the insurgents would be daring enough 
to fall upon his camp ; but he had taken measures to give 
them battle in its vicinity, as soon as they should de- 
mand it. 

Among the instructions issued to the officers of Charles's 
army, to be communicated in proper time to the troops, one 
was, that no firearms should be used, but only sword, dirk, 
and bayonet. It was also enjoined that, on entering the 
camp, they should immediately set about cutting* down or 
overturning the tents, and wherever a swelling or bulge 
was observed in the fallen canopy, c there to strike and push 
vigorously.' 2 As the camp was only nine miles distant 
from their position, it was expected that they would reach 
it soon after midnight, and thus have sufficient time to 

1 « King James the Eighth.' 2 Lockhart Papers, ii. 508. 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 241 

execute the whole of their project before daylight. Accord- 
ing 1 to the plan of attack, the army was to march in a 
column along* the north bank of the river Nairn till it 
reached a point about three miles from the duke's camp. 
It was there to be divided into two parties, one of which, 
comprehending' about the third of the whole number, was 
to cross the river under the command of Lord George 
Murray, and march on till it was close to the camp. It 
was there to recross the river, and attack the camp on the 
east and south sides, while the other and large detachment 
should fall upon it from the west. 

The night of the 15th of April chanced to be uncommonly 
dark. But this circumstance, so advantageous in one re- 
spect, was unfortunate in another, in as far as it impeded 
their progress. Their march lay, not in the public road, 
where their motions would have been so easily detected, 
but through waste and generally wet ground, considerably 
removed from both roads and houses, and where want of 
light was peculiarly disadvantageous. On this account 
their progress was very slow, and attended with much 
fatigue; and while many of the men dropped aside alto- 
gether, the rear column fell considerably behind the front. 
Lord George Murray, vexed at the slowness of the march, 
sent repeated requests, expressed in the most urgent terms, 
for the rear to join the van ; but these were either disre- 
garded or could not be executed. 

It was two in the morning before the head of the first 
column had passed Kilravock, an ancient mansion three 
miles from the duke's camp ; and Lord George then halted 
and called a council of officers, in which he declared it 
impossible for the army to reach the point of attack before 
daylight should expose them to the observation and fire of 
the enemy. Many officers, among whom was Mr Hepburn 
of Keith, spoke violently in favour of the original design ; 
even asserting that the Highland broadsword would not be 
the worse of a little daylight to direct its operations. But 
Lord George, with more prudence, insisted upon the evils 
which must result to the whole army, and of course to the 
general cause, should their approach be observed and pre- 
pared for, as in all probability it would ; and, hearing a 
drum beat in the distant camp, he expressed his conviction 
that the enemy were already alarmed. The urgency of the 
case demanding immediate determination, he took it upon 
his responsibility, as general, to turn back the men, Charles 
being so far in the rear, that it would have required some 
time to procure his orders. As they were marching back, 

VOL. V. P 



242 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Charles, apprised of the resolution by his secretary, Mr 
John Hay, came gallopping up, and had the mortification to 
find the army in full retreat. He was incensed in a high 
degree at Lord George, who, he said, had betrayed him. 
He was for still ordering the onward march; but when 
informed that Lord George was already far on his way 
back, he acquiesced in the retreat, saying, ' 'Tis no matter, 
then ; we shall meet them, and behave like brave fellows.' l 
He appears to have afterwards been made fully sensible of 
the necessity of the measure. 2 

That the measure was indeed necessary, in opposition to 
those who afterwards continued to assert the contrary, 
seems to be put beyond dispute, by the circumstance, that 
the day was fully dawned before the Highland army had 
proceeded two miles in the retreat, although they now 
marched by the straightest and best paths. 

The Highlanders returned, fatigued and disconsolate, to 
their former position about seven o'clock in the morning, 
when they immediately addressed themselves to sleep, or 
went away in search of provisions. So scarce was food at 
this critical juncture, that the Prince himself, on retiring 
to Culloden House, could obtain no better refreshment than 
a little bread and whisky. 3 He felt the utmost anxiety 
regarding his men, among whom the pangs of hunger, 
upon bodies exhausted by fatigue, must have been working 
effects the most unpromising to his success ; and he gave 
orders, before seeking any repose, that the whole country 
should now be mercilessly ransacked for the means of re- 
freshment. His orders were not without effect. Consider- 
able supplies were procured, and subjected to the cook's art 
at Inverness ; but the poor famished clansmen were destined 
never to taste these provisions, the hour of battle arriving 
before they were prepared. 

The moor of Culloden stretches away so far to the east, 
with so little irregularity, and so few incumbent objects, 
that its termination escapes the eyesight, and the horizon 
in that direction resembles that of a shoreless sea. It was 
about eleven in the forenoon when the Highland guards 
first observed the dim level outline of the plain to blacken 
with the marching troops of the Duke of Cumberland, which 
seemed gradually to rise above and occupy the horizon, 
like the darkness of a coming storm dawning in the mari- 
ner's eye upon the distant waters. Notice of their approach 
being carried to the Prince, he instantly rose, and went 

1 Jacobite Memoirs, 290. 2 Home's App. 3 Lockhart Papers, ii. 519. 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 243 

out to the moor to put himself at the head of his troops. 1 
He there exerted himself to collect his men from the various 
places to which they had straggled, ordering 1 a cannon to 
be fired as a signal for their immediate assembling. Mac- 
donald of Keppoch and the Frasers had joined that morning, 
to the great joy of the army; and it was in something like 
good spirits that they now prepared for battle. 

When all had been collected that seemed within call, the 
Prince found he had an army of about five thousand men, 
and these in poor condition for fighting', to oppose to a 
force reputed as numerous again, supported by superior 
horse and artillery, and whose strength was unimpaired 
either by hunger or fatigue. It seemed scarcely possible 
that he should overcome a host in every respect so much 
superior to his own ; and various measures were proposed 
to him by his officers for shunning battle in the meantime, 
and retiring to some position where their peculiar mode of 
warfare would avail against a regular army. But Charles, 
for reasons already stated, insisted upon immediate battle ; 
pointing out that the gross of the army seemed in the 
highest degree anxious to come to blows, and that they 
would probably fall off in ardour — perhaps altogether dis- 
perse — if the present opportunity were not seized. 

Active preparations were now, therefore, made for that con- 
flict upon which the issue of this singular national contest 
was finally to depend. The insurgents were drawn up by 
O'Sullivan (at once their adjutant and quarter-master-general) 
in two lines ; the right protected by the turf-enclosures around 
a rude farmstead, and their left extending towards a sort of 
morass in the direction of Culloden House. The front line 
consisted of the following clan regiments, reckoned from 
right to left : — Athole, Cameron, Appin, Eraser, Macintosh, 
Maclachlan and Maclean (forming one), John Eoy Stuart, 
Farquharson, Clanranald, Keppoch, Glengarry. The second, 
for which it was with difficulty that enough of men were 
found, comprised the Low country and foreign regiments, 
according to the following- order: — Lord Ogilvie, Lord 
Lewis Gordon, Glenbucket, the Duke of Perth, the Irish, 
the French. Four pieces of cannon were placed at each 
extremity of the front, and as many in the centre. Lord 
George Murray commanded the right wing, Lord John 

1 As he was quitting the house, the steward made up to him, with infor- 
mation that dinner, ' consisting of a roasted side of lamb and two fowls,' was 
about to be laid upon the table. But he asked the man if he would have him 
to sit down to eat at such a moment, and, hungry though he was, he imme- 
diately hurried out to the field. — The Young Chevalier, 6. 



244 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Drummond the left, General Stapleton the second line. 
Charles himself stood, with a small body of guards, upon a 
slight eminence in the rear. 

While the insurgent army laboured under every kind of 
disadvantage, and were actuated by impulses of the most 
distracting and harassing nature, that of the Duke of 
Cumberland moved with all the deliberation and security 
proper to a superior and more confident force. They had 
struck their tents at five in the morning, when, the com- 
manders of the various regiments having received their 
instructions in writing, the general orders of the day were 
read at the head of every company in the line. These bore, 
in allusion to the misbehaviour at Falkirk, that if any per- 
sons intrusted with the care of the train or baggage ab- 
sconded or left their charge, they should be punished with 
immediate death, and that if any officer or soldier failed in 
his duty during the action, he should be sentenced. An- 
other and more important order was then given to the 
army. The superiority of the broadsword over the bayonet 
at Preston and Falkirk had given rise to much discussion 
among military men, and during this winter many sugges- 
tions had been made and discussed in the public journals 
for putting the weapons of the regular troops upon a par 
with those of the insurgents. It was reserved for the Duke 
of Cumberland effectually to obviate the supposed supe- 
riority of the claymore and target. He had perceived that 
the greatest danger to which the regular troops were sub- 
jected in a charge of the Highlanders, arose from the 
circumstance, that the latter received his antagonist's point 
in his target, swayed it aside, and then had the defenceless 
body of the soldier exposed to his own weapon. The duke 
conceived that if each man, on coming within the proper 
distance of the enemy, should direct his thrust, not at the 
man directly opposite to him, but against the one who 
fronted his right-hand comrade, the target would be ren- 
dered useless, and the Highlander would be wounded in 
the right side, under the sword-arm, ere he could ward off 
the thrust. Accordingly, he had instructed the men during 
the spring in this new exercise. When they had taken 
their morning meal, they were marched forward from the 
camp, arranged in three parallel divisions of four regiments 
each, headed by Huske, Sempill, and Mordaunt ; having a 
column of artillery and baggage upon one hand, and a fifth 
of horse upon the other. 

After a march of eight miles, through ground which 
appeared to the English soldiers very boggy and difficult, 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 245 

they came within sight of the insurgents, who were posted 
about a mile and a half in advance. The duke then com- 
manded his lines to form, having learned that the High- 
landers seemed inclined to make the attack. Soon after, on 
its being ascertained that no motion was perceptible in the 
Highland army, he ordered the lines to be restored to the form 
of columns, and to proceed in their march. Calling out, at the 
same time, to know if any man in the army was acquainted 
with the ground, he commanded the individual who pre- 
sented himself to go a little way in advance, along with 
an officer of rank, to conduct the army, and especially the 
artillery, over the safest paths. When within a mile of the 
enemy, he ordered the army once more, and finally, to be 
formed in battle array. 

The royal army was disposed in three lines : the first 
containing, from left to right, the regiments of Barrel (now 
the 4th) and Munro (the 37th), the Scots Fusiliers (the 
21st), Price's (the 14th), Cholmondley's (the 34th), and the 
Scots Royals (the 1 st), under the command of the Earl of 
Albemarle ; the second, in the same order, Wolfe's (the 
8th), Sempill's (the 25th), Blyth's (the 20th), Ligonier's 
(the 48th), and Fleming's (the 35th), commanded by Gene- 
ral Huske; the third, Blakeney's (the 27th), Battereau's, 1 
Pulteney's (the 13th), and Howard's (the 3d), led by Briga- 
dier Mordaunt. The centres of all the regiments of the 
second line being behind the terminations of those of the first, 
and those of the third line occupying a similar position in 
regard to the second, the various bodies of which the army 
consisted were in a manner indented into each other. Be- 
twixt every two regiments of the first line were placed two 
cannon. The left flank was protected by Kerr's dragoons 
(the 11th), under Colonel Lord Ancrum ; the right by a 
bog ; and Cobham's dragoons (the 10th) stood in two de- 
tachments beside the third line. The Argyle Highlanders 
guarded the baggage. 

The disposition thus made was allowed by the best mili- 
tary men of the period to have been altogether admirable, 
because it was impossible for the Highlanders to break one 
regiment without finding two ready to supply its place. 
The arrangement of the insurgent army was also allowed 
to be very good, upon a supposition that they were to be 
attacked. 

Duke William, full of anxiety for the event of the day, 
took the opportunity afforded by the halt to make a short 

1 Broke in 1749. 



246 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

speech to his soldiers. The tenor of his harangue, which 
has been preserved in the note-book of an English officer, 
shows, in the most unequivocal manner, how apprehensive 
his royal highness was regarding the behaviour of his 
troops. Without directly adverting to Preston or Falkirk, 
he implored them to be firm and collected — to dismiss all 
remembrance of former failures from their minds — to con- 
sider the great object for which they were here, no less 
than to save the liberties of their country and the rights of 
their master. Having read a letter to them, which he said 
had been found upon the person of a straggler, and in 
which sentiments of the most merciless nature were 
breathed against the English soldiery, he represented to 
them that, in their present circumstances, with marshy 
ways behind them, and surrounded by an enemy's country, 
their best, indeed their only chance of personal safety, lay 
in hard fig'hting. He was grieved, he said, to make the 
~ supposition that there could be a person reluctant to fight 
in the British army. But if there were any here who 
would prefer to retire, whether from disinclination to the 
cause, or because they had relations in the rebel army, he 
begged them in the name of God to do so, as he would 
rather face the Highlanders with one thousand determined 
men at his back, than have ten thousand with a tithe who 
were lukewarm. The men, catching enthusiasm from his 
language, shouted ' Flanders ! Flanders V and impatiently 
desired to be led forward to battle. 

It was suggested to the duke at this juncture that he 
should permit the men to dine, as it was now nearly one 
o'clock, then the usual time for that meal, and as they 
would not probably have another opportunity of satisfying 
their hunger for several hours. But he decidedly rejected 
the proposal. 'The men/ he said, 'will fight better and 
more actively otherwise ; and, moreover, it would be a bad 
omen. You remember what a dessert they got to their 
dinner at Falkirk.' 

The army now marched forward in complete battle array, 
their fixed bayonets glittering in the sun, their colours 
flying, and the sound of a hundred drums rolling forward 
in defiance of the insurgents. Lord Kilmarnock is said to 
have remarked, on seeing the army approach, that he felt 
a presentiment of defeat, from the cool, orderly, determined 
manner in which they marched. When within 600 yards 
of the Highland lines, they found the ground so^ marshy, 
as to take most of the regiments up to the ankles in water ; 
and the artillery horses then sinking in a bog, some of the 



PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 247 

soldiers slung their carabines, and dragged the carriages on 
to their proper position. Soon after, the bog was found to 
terminate upon the right, so as to leave that flank un- 
covered; which being perceived by the all-vigilant duke, 
he ordered Pulteney's regdment to take its place beside the 
Scots Royals, and a body of horse to cover the whole wing 
in the same manner with the left. The army finally 
halted at the distance of five hundred paces from the High- 
landers. 

The day, which had hitherto been fair and sunny, was 
now partially overcast, and a shower of snowy rain beg^an 
to beat with violence from the north-east. The High- 
landers, to whom the weather had been so favourable at 
Falkirk, were somewhat disconcerted on finding it against 
them at Culloden ; the spirits of the regulars were propor- 
tionally raised. Charles saw and felt the disadvantage, and 
made some attempts, by manoeuvring, to get to windward 
of the royal army; but Duke William, equally vigilant, 
contrived to counteract all his movements; so that, after 
half an hour spent in mutual endeavours to outflank each 
other, the two armies at last occupied nearly their original 
ground. 

Whilst these vain manoeuvres were going on, an incident 
took place which serves to show the spirit of self-devotion 
which animated the Highlanders on this occasion. A poor 
mountaineer, resolving to sacrifice his life for his Prince 
and clan, approached the lines of the English, demanded 
quarter, and was sent to the rear. As he lounged back- 
wards and forwards through the lines, apparently indiffe- 
rent to what was going on, and even paying no attention 
to the ridicule with which the soldiers greeted his uncouth 
appearance, Lord Bury, son of the Earl of Albemarle, and 
aid-de-camp to the duke, happened to pass in the discharge 
of his duties, when all at once the Highlander seized one of 
the soldiers' muskets, and discharged it at that officer, re- 
ceiving next moment, with perfect indifference, and as a 
matter of course, the shot with which another soldier im- 
mediately terminated his own existence. He had intended 
to shoot the Duke of Cumberland, but fired prematurely, 
and without effect, at an inferior officer, whose gaudy 
apparel seemed, in his simple eyes, to indicate the highest 
rank. 

There is a print, executed at the time, 1 in which the 
beginning, middle, and end of the battle of Culloden are 

1 London; drawn by A. Hecliel, engraved by L. S., and sold by Robert 
Wilkinson. 



248 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

simultaneously represented. It is calculated to be of mate- 
rial service in portraying* the various successive events of 
the action, and also in conveying" a good idea of the ground, 
and of the positions and appearance of the armies. The 
spectator is supposed to stand within the enclosures so often 
mentioned, and to look northward along the lines, towards 
Culloden House and the Moray Firth. In the foreground, 
rather for the sake of giving a portrait of the hero of the 
day, than because this was his position, the artist has repre- 
sented the duke on horseback, with a walking-cane extended 
in his hand, a star upon the breast of his long gold-laced 
coat, and his head, with its close curls and tri-cocked hat, 
inclined towards an aid-de-camp, to whom he is giving 
orders. The long, compact lines of the British regiments, 
each three men deep, extend along the plain, with narrow 
intervals between ; the two flags of each regiment rising 
from the centre; the officers standing at the extremities, 
with their spontoons in their hands, and the drummers a 
little in advance, beating their instruments. The men have 
tri-cocked hats, long coats, resembling the modern surtout, 
sash-belts, from which a sword depends, and long white 
gaiters, buttoned up the sides. The dragoons exhibit still 
more cumbrous superfluity of attire ; their long loose skirts 
flying behind them as they ride, whilst their trunk square- 
toed boots, their massive stirrup-leathers, their huge holster- 
pistols and carabines, give altogether an idea of dignity and 
strength much in contrast with the light fantastic hussar 
uniforms of modern times. 

The Highlanders, on the other hand, stand in lines 
equally compact, and, like the regular regiments, each three 
men deep. The only peculiarity in their dress, which is so 
well known as to require no general description, seems to 
be, that the philabeg, or kilt, is pulled through betwixt the 
legs in such a way as to show more of the front of the 
thigh than is exhibited by the modern specimens of that 
peculiar garment. They have muskets over their left 
shoulders," basket-hilted broadswords by their left sides, 
pistols stuck into their girdles, and a small pouch hanging 
down upon the right loin, perhaps for holding' their ammu- 
nition. By the right side of every piece of ordnance there 
is a cylindrical piece of wicker-work, for the protection of 
the artillerymen, all of whom appear to wear kilts like the 
rest. 

The ground upon which the armies stand is the plain 
swelling moor already described, out of which Culloden 
House raises its erect form, without any of the plantations 



BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 249 

which now surround it. The spires of Inverness are seen 
upon the left, close to the sea-shore. Upon the Moray Firth, 
which stretches along* the back ground of the picture, the 
victualling-ships ride at anchor, like witnesses of the scene 
about to ensue ; and the magnificent hills of Eoss raise 
their lofty forms in the remoter distance. 

Such were the aspect and circumstances of the two armies, 
upon whose conduct, during- the next little hour, the future 
interests of Britain might in some measure be considered to 
depend. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 

Fair lady, mourn the memory 

Of all our Scottish fame ; 
Fair lady, mourn the memory 

Even of the Scottish name ! 
How proud were we of our young Prince, 

And of his native sway ! 
But all our hopes are past and gone 

Upon Culloden day. 

There was no lack of bravery there, 

No spare of blood or breath : 
For, one to two, our foes we dared, 

For freedom or for death. 
The bitterness of grief is past, 

Of terror and dismay ; 
The die was risked, and foully cast, 

Upon Culloden day. 

Jacobite Song. 

The action was commenced by the Highlanders, who 
fired their cannon for a few minutes without being* answered 
by the royal artillery. They had brought their guns to 
bear upon a point where, by means of glasses, they thought 
they could perceive the duke. But the shot went clear over 
the heads of the king's troops, and for a long time did no 
other mischief than carrying off a leg from one of Blyth's 
regiment. 

A few minutes after one o'clock, soon after the High- 
landers had opened up their battery, Colonel Belford got 
orders to commence a cannonade, chiefly with a view to 
provoke the enemy to advance. The colonel, who was an 
excellent engineer, performed his duty with such effect, as 
to make whole lanes through the ranks of the insurgents. 
He fired two pieces at a body of horse, amongst whom it 



250 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

was believed the Prince was stationed ; and with such pre- 
cision did he take his aim, that that personage was bespat- 
tered with dirt raised by the balls, and a man holding a led 
horse by his side was killed. 

Meanwhile the duke rode about, calling upon his men to 
be firm in their ranks — to permit the Highlanders to mingle 
with them — to let them feel the force of the bayonet — to 
'make them know what men they had to do with.' He 
also ordered Wolfe's regiment to form en potence at the ex- 
tremity of the left wing— that is, to take a position perpen- 
dicular to the general line, so as to be ready to fall in upon 
and enclose the Highlanders as soon as they should attack 
that division of his army. He also ordered two regiments 
of the rear line, or reserve, to advance to the second. 
Finally, he himself took his position between the first 
and second lines, opposite to the centre of Howard's regi- 
ment, and of course a little nearer the left than the right 
wing. 

Prince Charles, before the commencement of the battle, 
had ridden along the lines of his little army, endeavouring, 
by the animation of his gestures, countenance, and lan- 
guage, to excite the Highlanders to their highest pitch of 
courage. They answered him with cheers, and with many 
an expression of devotion, which he could only understand 
by the look with which it was uttered. He then again 
retired to the eminence which he originally occupied, and 
prepared with an anxious mind to await the fortune of the 
day. 

The great object of both parties at the battle of Culloden 
seems to have been, which should force the other to leave 
its position, and make the attack. Charles for a long time 
expected that the duke would do this, because he was fa- 
voured with the wind and weather. But the duke, finding 
his cannon rapidly thinning the Highland ranks, without 
experiencing any loss in return, felt no occasion to make 
such a motion, and it therefore became incumbent upon 
Charles to take that course himself. 

The victory of Preston, where the Highlanders experi- 
enced little or no annoyance from cannon, had done away 
with a great deal of the fear in which they originally held 
these engines of destruction ; and it seems to have been a 
capital error on Charles's part to have restrained them, on 
the present occasion, to a position where that terror got 
some reason and leisure to return. He ought to have, on 
the contrary, rushed up, at the very first, to the lines of his 
enemy, and endeavoured to silence their artillery, as he had 



BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 251 

done at Preston, by a coup-de-main. Had lie done so, a 
great number of lives might have been saved, and the attack 
would have been made with lines less broken, and a more 
uniform and simultaneous impulse. 

It was not till the cannonade had continued nearly half 
an hour, and the Highlanders had seen many of their kin- 
dred stretched upon the heath, that Charles at last gave 
way to the necessity of ordering a charge. The aid-de- 
camp intrusted to carry his message to the lieutenant- 
general — a youth of the name of Maciauchlan — was killed 
by a cannon-ball before he reached the first line ; but the 
general sentiment of the army, as reported to Lord George 
Murray, supplied the want ; and that general took it upon 
him to order an attack, without Charles's permission having 
been communicated. 

Lord George had scarcely determined upon ordering a 
general movement, when the Macintoshes — a brave and 
devoted clan — though not before engaged in action 1 — unable 
any longer to brook the unavenged slaughter made by the 
cannon, broke from the centre of the line, and rushed for- 
ward through smoke and snow to mingle with the enemy. 
The Athole-men, Camerons, Stuarts, Frasers, and Macleans, 
also went on, Lord George Murray heading them with that 
rash bravery befitting the commander of such forces. Thus, 
in the course of one or two minutes, the charge was general 
along the whole line, except at the left extremity, where 
the Macdonalds, dissatisfied with their position, hesitated 
to engage. 

It was the custom of the Highlanders, before an onset, 
to scrug their bonnets — that is, to pull their little blue 
caps down over their brows — so as to insure them against 
falling off in the ensuing melee. Never, perhaps, was 
this motion performed with so much emphasis as on the 
present occasion, when every man's forehead burned with 
the desire to revenge some dear friend who had fallen a 
victim to the murderous artillery. A Lowland gentleman, 
who was in the line, and who survived till a late period, 

1 One of this corps, though not of the clan name — old John Grant, long 
keeper of the inn at Aviemore — used to tell that the first thing he saw of the 
enemy was the long line of white gaiters belonging to an English regiment, 
which was suddenly revealed, when about twenty yards from him, by a blast 
of wind which blew aside the smoke. According to the report of this veteran, 
the mode of drilling used by his leader upon Culloden Moor was very simple, 
being directed by the following string of orders, expressed in Gaelic :— ' Come, 
my lads— fall in, with your faces to Fortrose, and your backs to the Green of 
Muirtown— load your firelocks— good— make ready— present— now take good 
aim — fire — be sure to do execution — that's the point.' — Information by the 
editor of the Culloden Papers, 



252 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

used always, in relating 1 the events of Culloden, to comment, 
with a feeling of something" like awe, upon the more than 
natural expression of rage which glowed on every face, and 
gleamed in every eye, as he surveyed the extended line at 
this moment. 

The action and event of the onset were, throughout, quite 
as dreadful as the mental emotion which urged it. Not- 
withstanding that the three files of the front line of English 
poured forth their incessant fire of musketry — notwith- 
standing that the cannon, now loaded with grape-shot, 
swept the field as with a hail-storm — notwithstanding the 
flank fire of Wolfe's regiment — onward, onward went the 
headlong Highlanders, flinging themselves into, rather than 
rushing upon, the lines of the enemy, which, indeed, they 
did not see for smoke till involved among their weapons. 
All that courage, all that despair could do, was done. It 
was a moment of dreadful and agonizing suspense, but 
only a moment — for the whirlwind does not reap the forest 
with greater rapidity than the Highlanders cleared the line. 
Nevertheless, almost every man in their front rank, chief 
and gentleman, fell before the deadly weapons which they 
had braved ; and although the enemy gave way, it was not 
till every bayonet was bent and bloody with the strife. 

When the first line had been thus swept aside, the assail- 
ants continued their impetuous advance till they came near 
the second, when, being almost annihilated by a profuse 
and well-directed fire, the shattered remains of what had 
been but an hour before a numerous and confident force, 
began to give way. Still a few rushed on, resolved rather 
to die than forfeit their well-acquired and dearly-estimated 
honour. They rushed on; but not a man ever came in 
contact with the enemy. The last survivor perished as he 
reached the points of the bayonets. 1 

The persevering and desperate valour displayed by the 
Highlanders on this occasion, is proved by the circumstance, 
that at one part of the plain, where a very vigorous attack 
had been made, their bodies were afterwards found in layers 
three and four deep ; so many, it would appear, having in 
succession mounted over a prostrate friend, to share in the 
same certain fate. The slaughter was particularly great 

1 ' The late Mr Macdonald of Glenaladale told me, some years ago, that 
he saw John Mor Macgilvra, major of the Macintoshes, a gun-shot past the 
enemy's cannon, and that he was surrounded by the reinforcements sent 
against the Macintoshes; that he killed a dozen men with his broadsword, 
while some of the halberts were run into his body. When Cumberland heard 
of it, he said he would have given a great sum of money to have saved his 
life.'— Letter of Bishop Mackintosh, MS. 1810. 



BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 253 

among the brave Macintoshes ; insomuch, that the heroic 
lady who sent them to the field afterwards told the party 
by whom she was taken prisoner that only three of her 
officers had escaped. 

While the rest of the clans were performing" this brilliant 
though fatal charge, the Macdonalds, as already stated, 
withheld themselves, on account of their removal to the left 
wing*. According" to the report of one of their officers, 1 the 
clan not only resented this indignity, but considered it as 
omening evil fortune to the day ; their clan never having 
fought elsewhere than on the right wing since the auspi- 
cious battle of Bannockburn. The Duke of Perth, who 
was stationed amongst them, endeavoured to appease their 
anger by telling them that, if they fought with their cha- 
racteristic bravery, they would make the left wing a right, 
in which case he would assume for ever after the honour- 
able surname of Macdonald. But the insult was not to be 
expiated by this appeal to clanship. Though induced to 
discharge their muskets, and even to advance some way, 
they never made an onset. They endured the fire of the 
English regiments without flinching ; only expressing their 
rage by hewing up the heath with their swords ; but they 
at last fled when they saw the other clans give way. From 
this conduct there was a brilliant exception in the chieftain 
of Keppoch, a man of chivalrous character, and noted for 
great private worth. When the rest of his clan retreated, 
Keppoch exclaimed, with feelings not to be appreciated in 
modern society, i My God, have the children of my tribe 
forsaken me ! ' — he then advanced, with a pistol in one hand 
and a drawn sword in the other, resolved apparently to 
sacrifice his life to the offended genius of his name. He 
had got but a little way from his regiment, when a musket- 
shot brought him to the ground. A clansman of more than 
ordinary devotedness, who followed him, and with tears 
and prayers conjured him not to throw his life away, raised 
him, with the cheering assurance that his wound was not 
mortal, and that he might still quit the field with life. 
Keppoch desired his faithful follower to take care of him- 
self, and again rushing forward, received another shot, and 
fell to rise no more. 

When the whole front line of Charles's host had been 
thus repulsed, there only remained to him the hope that his 
Lowland and foreign troops, upon whom the wreck of the 
clans had fallen back, might yet make head against the 

1 Lockhart Papers, ii. 510. 



254 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

English infantry, and he eagerly sought to put himself at 
their head. But though a troop of the Irish pickets, b}^ 
a spirited fire, checked the pursuit which a body of dragoons 
commenced after the Macdonalds, and one of Lord Lewis 
Gordon's regiments did similar service in regard to another 
troop which now began to break through the enclosures on 
the right, 1 the whole body gave way at once, on observing 
the English regiments advancing to charge them. Their 
hearts were broken with despair rather than with terror ; 
and they could only reply to his animating exclamations, 
1 Prions — ochon! ochon V 2 — the ejaculation by which High- 
landers express the bitterest grief. As they said this, they 
fled; nor could all his intreaties, or those of his officers, 
prevail upon them to stand. 

It was, indeed, a complete rout. The mountaineers had 
done all that their system of warfare taught them, and all 
that their natural strength had enabled them to perform : 
they had found this vain ; and all that then remained was 
to reserve their lives, if possible, for some future effort. 
Charles lingered late on the field, in the hope that all was 
not lost. He even moved to charge the enemy, and it 
required the utmost efforts of his attendants to make him 
withdraw. He at last only left the field, when to have 
remained would have but added his own destruction to 
that of the many brave men who had already spilt their 
heart's blood in his cause. 3 

The pursuit of the royal forces did not immediately follow. 
After the insurgents had withdrawn their shattered strength, 
the English regiments, some of which had suffered severely, 
were ordered to resume the ground where they had stood, 
and to dress their ranks. The dragoon regiments, with 
which the duke had calculated to enclose the charging 
Highlanders as in a trap, were checked, as already stated, 

1 These enclosures had been broken down for their passage by the Argyle 
Highlanders. 

2 The Young Chevalier, p. 7. 

3 It required all the eloquence, and, indeed, all the active exertions of 
O'Sullivan, to make Charles quit the field. A cornet in his service, when 
questioned upon this subject at the point of death, declared he saw O'Sullivan, 
after using intreaties in vain, turn the head of the Prince's horse, and drag 
him away. — See Quart. Rev. No. 7L An anecdote at issue with this state- 
ment was often related by the late Sir James Steuart of Coltness. Lord Elcho 
(who was uncle to Sir James) was said to have gone up to the Prince, and 
intreated him to put himself at the head of the broken troops, and renew the 
charge. On the Prince refusing, Elcho was represented as addressing him in 
violently discourteous language, which concluded with a vow that he would 
never again see his face. There are reasons for disbelieving this tale — parti- 
cularly the fact, that Elcho rode for several miles from the field in the imme- 
diate company of the Prince, and afterwards kept up a correspondence with 
him. 



BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 255 

by the flanks of the Prince's second line; and they had 
altogether been so handled by the insurgents, 1 that it was 
some time ere they recovered breath or courage sufficient 
to commence or sustain a general pursuit. 

The English dragoons at length did break forward, and 
join, as intended, in the centre of the field, so as to make a 
vigorous and united charge upon the rear of the fugitives. 
Charles's army then broke into two bodies of unequal mag- 
nitude ; one of which took the open road for Inverness, 
while the other turned off towards the south-west, crossed 
the water of Nairn, and found refuge among the hills. 

The fate of the first of these divisions was the most disas- 
trous, their route admitting of the easiest pursuit. It lay 
along an open moor, which the light horse of the enemy 
could bound over without obstruction. A dreadful slaughter 
took place, involving many of the inhabitants of Inverness, 
who had approached the battle-ground from curiosity, and 
whose dress subjected them to the undiscriminating ven- 
geance of the soldiery. Some of the French, who fled early, 
reached Inverness in safety; but scarcely any who wore 
the Highland dress escaped. A broad pavement of carnage 
marked four out of the five miles intervening betwixt the 
battle-field and that city ; the last of the slain being found 
at a place called Millburn, about a mile from the extremity 
of the suburbs. 2 

Some other portions of the retiring* army displayed a 
self-protecting coolness and resolution. 3 . The right wing, 

1 The Rev, Donald Mackintosh, usually called Bishop Mackintosh, writing 
in 1810, says, ' John Miln, an old "bellman in Edinburgh, is still alive : he is 
one of the ffteen men whom our Clan Chattan left of Barrel's regiment at 
Culloden.' — MS. $n my possession. 

2 Tradition at Inverness, confirmed by Mr Home. ' The cattle was wit- 
nessed by many gentlemen (amateurs) who rode from Inverness for that pur- 
pose — among the rest, my grandfather, Mr of , and Mr Evan Baillie 

of Aberiachan. They took post upon a small hill, not far from where the 
Prince and his suite were stationed, and there remained till dislodged by the 
cannon-balls falling about them. In then- retreat they passed through Inver- 
ness, and at the bridge-end met the Frasers, under the Master of Lovat. 
These had not been in time for the battle ; but the Master seemed very anxious 
to defend the passage of the bridge, and spoke much of fighting there. Mr 
Baillie, who was a warm Jacobite, and rather testy in his way, sternly ad- 
dressed the Master in these words, "Fighting! by G — , Master, you were 
not in the way when fighting might have been of service. You had better 
now say nothing about it !'" — From information contributed in writing by the 
editor of the Cidloden Papers. 

3 A strange instance of their cunning is commemorated by Mr Ray, a 
volunteer, who wrote an account of the insurrection. " In the flight,' says 
he, ' I came up with a pretty young Highlander, who called out to me, "Hold 
your hand— I am a Campbell." On which I asked him, "Where's your bon- 
net?" " Somebody has snatched it off my head." I mention this to show 
how we distinguished our loyal clans from the rebels, they being dressed and 



256 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

in its way to cross the river Nairn, met a large party of 
English dragoons which had been despatched to intercept 
them. Such was the desperate fury of their appearance, 
that the troopers opened their ranks in respectful silence to 
permit them to pass. Only one man attempted to annoy 
the fugitives. He was an officer, and dearly did he pay for 
his temerity. Advancing to seize a Highlander, the man 
cut him down with one blow of his claymore. Not content 
with this, the Highlander stooped down, and, with the 
greatest deliberation, possessed himself of his victim's gold 
watch. He then joined the retreat, whilst the commander 
of the party could only look on in silence, astonished at the 
coolness of the mountaineer. 1 

Another Highlander signalised himself in a still more 
remarkable manner. He was a man of prodigious bodily 
strength ; his name Golice Macbane. When all his com- 
panions had fled, Golice, singled out and wounded, set his 
back against a wall, and, with his target and claymore, 
bore singly the onset of a party of dragoons. Pushed to 
desperation, he made resistless strokes at his enemies, who 
crowded and incumbered themselves to have each the glory 
of slaying him. ' Save that brave fellow ! ? was the unre- 
garded cry of some officers. Poor Macbane was cut to 
pieces, though not, it is said, till thirteen of his enemies lay 
dead around him. 2 

The battle of Culloden is said to have lasted little more 
than forty minutes, most of which brief space of time was 
spent in distant firing, and very little in the active struggle. 
It was as complete a victory as possible on the part of the 
royal army, and any other result would surely have been 
very discreditable to the English army. Their numbers 
and condition for fighting were so superior, their artillery 
did so much for them, and the plan of the battle was so 
much in their favour, that to have lost the day would have 
argued a degree of misbehaviour for which even Preston 
and Falkirk had not prepared us. Great praise was awarded 
afterwards to Barrel's, Munro's, and some other regiments, 
for their fortitude in bearing the attack of the Highlanders, 

equipped all in one way, except the bonnet ; ours having a red or yellow cross 
or ribbon, theirs a white cockade. He having neither of these distinctions, 
I desired him, if he was a Campbell, to follow me, which he promised ; but 
on the first opportunity he gave me the slip.' 

1 Chevalier Johnstone's Memoirs. 

2 Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, p. 200. This man, 
according to Henderson's History, was six feet four inches and a quarter 
high. He had several bayonet-stabs, a large cut in his head, and his thigh- 
bone broke through. 



TRANSACTIONS AFTER THE EATTLE OF CULLODEN. 257 

and for their killing 1 so many; but these battalions were 
in reality completely beat aside, and the whole front line 
shaken so much, that, had the Macdonald regiments made 
a simultaneous charge alon^ with the other clans, the day 
might have had a different issue. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

TRANSACTIONS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE BATTLE 
OF CULLODEN. 

The target is torn from the arms of the just, 

The helmet is cleft on the brow of the brave ; 
The claymore for ever in darkness must rust, 

But red is the sword of the stranger and slave. 
The hoof of the horse, and the foot of the proud, 

Have trod o'er the plumes on the bonnet of blue : 
Why slept the red bolt in the breast of the cloud, 

When tyranny revelled in blood of the true ? 
Farewell, my young hero, the gallant and good ! 

The crown of thy fathers is torn from thy brow. 

James Hogg. 

The reader has seen that after the battles of Preston 
and Falkirk the party left in possession of the field treated 
the wounded of the enemy with humanity — that the same 
party acted with liberal kindness towards their prisoners — 
and that the leader, in particular, manifested on various 
occasions a degree of clemency and forbearance with which 
oven his own officers sometimes found fault, as being car- 
ried to what they thought a dangerous extreme. We are 
now to see how the Duke of Cumberland and his army are 
to conduct themselves under the first triumph which their 
party had achieved during the campaign. 

It has already been stated that, in the pursuit towards 
Inverness, no quarter was given. To excuse this after- 
wards, a regimental order was produced, as having been 
found on the person of ' a rebel/ and signed by Lord George 
Murray, commanding the insurgent army to give no quar- 
ter to the king's troops. It is well known that no such 
order was given out to the insurgent army, and as it was 
not alluded to in the official accounts of the battle prepared 
under the duke's care, there seems much, though perhaps 
not conclusive, evidence that it was a forgery, made up 
after the fact, in order to palliate butcheries which had 
their sole origin in the vengeance of fear or native bar- 
barity. 

VOL. V. Q 



258 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Immediately after the conclusion of the battle, the men, 
under the command of their officers, traversed the field, 
stabbing with their bayonets, or cutting" down with their 
swords, such of the wounded of the defeated party as came 
under their notice. This was done as much in sport as in 
rage, and as the work went on, the men at length began 
to amuse themselves by splashing and dabbling each other 
with blood. They at length looked, as one of themselves 
has reported, ( more like so many butchers than an army 
of Christian soldiers.' 1 It was under such circumstances 
that it became the duty of the chaplains to read the morning 
service of the day, in which (being the 16th of the month) 
the 79th psalm occurs as the first to be read : — ' Oh God, 
the heathen are come into thine inheritance : thy holy 
temple have they defiled : they have laid Jerusalem on 
heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to 
be meat unto the fowls of heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto 
the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water 
round about Jerusalem : and there was none to bury them. 
We are become a reproach to our neighbours. . . . They 
have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling-place. . . . 
Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee : according 
to the greatness of thy power, preserve those that are ap- 
pointed to die/ &c. It has been said, and the fact would 
be by no means surprising, that an order to substitute 
another psalm was immediately given. 2 

In the sycophant publications of the time, it is stated 
that, after the duke had refreshed himself, he took ' a serious 
walk' over the field, c followed by some of his attendants, 
who observed him to be in deep meditation. He laid his 
hand upon his breast, and with his eyes lifted up to heaven, 
was heard to say, " Lord, what am I that I should be spared, 
when so many brave men lie dead upon the spot!" — an 
expression of such deep humility towards God, and com- 
passion towards his fellow-creatures, as is truly worthy a 
Christian hero.' There is a better-authenticated anecdote, 
which stands in fine contrast with this piece of cant. Riding 
over the field, attended by some of his officers, the duke 
observed a young wounded Highlander resting on his elbow 
and staring at the royal party. He asked the man to whom 
he belonged, and received for answer, i To the Prince.' He 
instantly called to an officer to shoot l that insolent scoun- 
drel.' The officer, Major Wolfe, declined the task, saying 
that his commission was at the disposal of his royal high- 

1 Scots Magazine, viii. 192. 

s It is proper to mention that this anecdote rests on Jacobite tradition. 



TRANSACTIONS AFTER THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 259 

ness, but he could never consent to become an executioner. 
The duke asked several other officers in succession to c pistol ' 
the wounded man, but with the like result. Then seeing* a 
common soldier, he asked him if he had a charge in his 
piece ; and the man answering in the affirmative, he com- 
manded him to do the required duty, which was imme- 
diately performed. The youth thus slain was Mr Charles 
Fraser, younger of Inverallachy, lieutenant-colonel of the 
Master of Lovat's regiment. The officer who first refused 
was afterwards observed to decline in favour with his com- 
mander. 1 

As already stated, the English dragoons pursued the 
chase till within a mile of Inverness. The duke, leaving 1 
the infantry at dinner on the battle-field, soon after marched 
forward to take possession of the town. As he proceeded, 
a drummer came out with a letter from General Stapleton, 
soliciting quarter for himself and the French and Irish 
regiments under his charge. The duke commanded Sir 
Joseph Yorke to alight from his horse, and with his pencil 
write a note to the general, assuring him, and the others 
in whose behalf he wrote, of fair quarter and honourable 
treatment. He then sent forward Captain Campbell of 
SempilFs regiment, with his company of grenadiers, to 
take possession of the town. 

Already Inverness had been the scene of several of those 
wild acts which war brings to the doors of peaceful men. 
A sick gentleman of the insurgent army, named James 
Aberdeen, lay in the house of one widow Davidson, and 
being this afternoon at the height of a fever, he was unable 
to make his escape. Of this fact some soldiers chanced to 
become aware through the imprudence of a maid-servant. 
They immediately rushed into the sick-chamber and cut the 
throat of the unfortunate man where he lay. Two Low- 
countrymen, flying from the field of battle without arms, 
were followed hotly by a Cumberland volunteer on horse- 
back. Having entered the town, they went into the well- 
house to conceal themselves, but were observed by their pur- 
suer, who, having given his horse to a girl on the street to 
be held for him, went into the place, and notwithstanding 
the piteous cries of the two men, cut them down with his 
sword. The monster who acted thus was one Ray, who 
afterwards published a coarsely-written narrative of the 
insurrection. 2 

1 Critique upon Home's Hist. Reb. in Anti- Jacobin Review, vol. xiii., by 
the late Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton, Bart. 

2 See the proper authorities for these facts in Jacobite Memoirs. 



260 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

The duke, while knowing no mercy towards * rebels/ was 
not without a proper regard for the welfare of his own men. 
On entering Inverness, he lost no time in going to the tol- 
booth and church, in which the prisoners taken at former 
periods by the insurgents were confined. As they joyfully 
descended into the street, he clapped them on the back with 
expressions of kindness, and immediately after ordered them 
food, new clothes, and their arrears of pay. It was alleged that 
they had not been well used by the insurgent officers ; but 
for this no evidence has ever been adduced. One officer, in- 
deed, who had a newly-raised corps, being anxious to obtain 
clothes for his men, took it upon him, without the least au- 
thority, to strip the prisoners of their coats ; but the Prince 
was immediately made aware of what was going on, and 
commanded the clothes of the men to be restored to them. 
This happened about a week before the battle. 

Several of the Jacobite ladies who had attended their hus- 
bands during the campaign with so much fortitude, were 
made prisoners at Inverness. It is reported, in one of the 
vulgar party productions of the time, that they had just 
drunk tea, and were preparing for a ball, at which the 
Prince and his officers were to be entertained after his ex- 
pected victory, when the entrance of the fugitives informed 
them of the fatal reverse their friends had met with. The 
duke's soldiers found a considerable quantity of provision 
which had been preparing for the Highlanders. 1 

The royal army marched in the evening to Inverness, 
and there formed a camp. One of the duke's first duties 
at head-quarters was to select from the prisoners those who 
had deserted from the royal army, to subject them to a 

1 As at Holyroodhouse, Falkirk, and various other places, the duke took 
up his lodgings in the same house, the same room, and the same bed, which 
his precursor Charles had just vacated. It may he safely conjectured that 
Lady Drummuir, whose daughter, Lady Mackintosh, had here acted as the 
presiding divinity of Charles's household for two months before,* would by 
no means relish the presence of her new tenant, but that he, on the contrary, 
would be esteemed as an intruder, where his predecessor had been a welcome 
and honoured guest. The comment which she afterwards passed upon this 
eventful period in the history of her household is still a tradition in her 
family. ' I've had twa kings' bairns living wi' me in my time, and to tell 
you the truth, I" wish I may never hae another.' 

* Lady Mackintosh was taken prisoner after the battle of Culloden, and 
carried up to London, but was soon set at liberty. Cumberland, it is said, 
gave a ball, to which he invited this lady. The first tune played was, ' Up 
and waur them a', Willie,' to which he requested her to dance. Having con- 
sented, she asked him, when they were done, if, since she had danced to his 
tune, he would dance to hers. He could not refuse to a lady, and Colonel 
Ann asked for ' The auld Stuarts back again ! ' To this tune our singularly 
associated couple also danced.— Letter of Bishop Mackintosh, MS, 



TRANSACTIONS AFTER THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 261 

brief military trial, and then to consign them to the death 
of traitors. No fewer than thirty-six suffered this punish- 
ment, including" a sergeant named Dunbar, who was found 
dressed in a suit of laced clothes he had taken from Major 
Lockhart at the battle of Falkirk, and who, on that account, 
was exposed upon the gibbet for forty-eight hours. This 
melancholy list is said to have included a youthful cadet of 
the noble family of Forbes, whose zeal in behalf of the house 
of Stuart, overcoming his regard for the military oath, had 
caused him to desert an English regiment, in which he was 
a cadet, for the purpose of joining Charles's standard. While 
this youth was yet suspended upon the gibbet, an English 
officer, unable to restrain his indignation at the delinquency 
of the culprit, ran up to the scarce inanimate corpse and 
stabbed it with his sword, exclaiming at the same time, 
with a gross execration, that i all his countrymen were 
traitors and rebels like himself.' At this time there was a 
jealousy respecting our national honour, which more just 
treatment on the part of England has long since lulled 
asleep. It was not, therefore, wonderful that the language 
of this rude man, being overheard by a Scottish officer of the 
king's army, provoked him to draw his sword and demand 
satisfaction for the insult. The two men were presently 
engaged in combat on the open street. Others coming 
up, and learning the cause of the quarrel, also drew and 
joined in, according to their respective prepossessions. The 
men then beat to arms, and joined the ranks of their respec- 
tive officers. In short, it seemed likely that the victorious 
army would soon be involved in a new war within itself, 
when the duke, hearing of the tumult, hurried to the scene, 
and exerted himself to restore peace. He found the two 
parties about to make a general charge against each other, 
and it was not without using some eloquence to soothe the 
wounded feelings of the Scottish officers, that he succeeded 
in putting an end to the dispute. 

It being reported to the commander next day that a con- 
siderable number of the wounded ' rebels ' lying on Culloden 
muir were still in life, he ordered a party to proceed to the 
spot, avowedly for the humane purpose of putting them out 
of pain ! The order was obeyed with military punctuality. 
About seventy poor wretches were gathered amongst the 
heaps of slain, and carried to pieces of rising ground, where, 
being properly ranged, they were despatched by platoons of 
musketry. On the ensuing day (Friday), when it was 
understood that some others of the wounded had found shel- 
ter in the neighbouring houses, other parties were sent to 



262 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

search for them, and subject them to the same treatment. 
Many were accordingly dragged forth, and of these all, ex- 
cept a very few, were coolly murdered. The young Laird of 
Macleod was afterwards heard to declare that on this day he 
saw seventy -two persons killed in cold blood. In one in- 
stance the sheltering hut was set fire to, and burnt under 
a guard, by whom any one attempting to escape was in- 
stantly bayoneted. Amidst the ashes, thirty-two blackened 
corpses were found. Nineteen wounded officers of the High- 
land army had been carried from a wood in which they at 
first found shelter to the courtyard of Culloden House, 
where the steward, though at considerable risk to himself, 
administered to them some little comforts. These men were 
now discovered by the royal troops, who immediately had 
them carried out on carts to a park wall near by, where, 
being all ranged up, they were told to prepare for instant 
death. Such as were able threw themselves on their knees 
to ask for mercy at the only tribunal where they could now 
hope for it, and while they were thus engaged, a platoon 
of musketry put an end to the lives of nearly all. To com- 
plete the work, the soldiers were ordered to club their mus- 
kets, and beat out the brains of such as showed any symp- 
toms of life. This order was obeyed with full effect in all 
except one surprising instance. A person named John 
Alexander Fraser, or familiarly Maciver, who had been an 
officer in the Master of Lo vat's regiment, was amongst those 
who did not perish by the shot. A soldier struck him on 
the face with the butt of his musket, broke the upper part 
of his nose and cheek-bone, and dashed out one of his eyes. 
He was left for dead, yet still retained some remains of life. 
A young officer of the British army — said to have been 
Lord Boyd — riding by some time after, observed him stir, 
and had the humanity to cause his servant to carry the 
mutilated wretch to a neighbouring kiln, where he remained 
for three months, and was cured of his wounds. He lived 
many years after, a dismal memorial of the cruelties of 
Culloden.i 

Notwithstanding the mercilessness of the pursuit, a con- 
siderable number of the Prince's men were made prisoners, 2 

1 All the above facts are amply authenticated vin the papers collected by 
Bishop Forbes, and published by the present writer in the volume entitled 
' Jacobite Memoirs.' 

2 The Earl of Kilmarnock became a prisoner on the field. During the con- 
fusion of the flight, being half-blinded by smoke and snow, he mistook a 
party of dragoons for Fitzjames's horse, and was accordingly taken. He was 
soon after led along the lines of the British infantry, in which his eldest son, 
then a very young man, held the commission of an ensign. The earl had lost 



TRANSACTIONS AFTER THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 263 

and placed in confinement in the church and tolbooth of 
Inverness. There they were treated with the greatest in- 
humanity. Many were stripped of their clothes, and 
allowed to remain "for a long* time with scarcely a rag* upon 
their bodies. For food they were allowed only a little meal, 
not more than half of what is necessary for subsistence. 
The wounded received no attention or succour of any kind 
from their captors, and were even forbidden to receive any 
from two surgeons of their own party, named Lauder and 
Rattray, who had been taken at the same time. The 
humane citizens of Inverness beheld these cruelties with 
horror ; but for several days it was dangerous for any one 
to attempt to send clothes or food to the prisoners, or to 
make any effort in behalf of such as were wounded. The 
unfortunate men were at length put on board vessels to be 
sent to London, that they might there be at the pleasure of 
the government. No provision was made for their comfort 
in these vessels. They were huddled in their naked or half- 
naked state into holds, where they sat or lay upon stones, 
with an allowance of one bottle of cold water, and from 
half a pound to twelve ounces of oatmeal, or rather the 
shealings of oats, a-day. In one vessel no fewer than a 
hundred and fifty-seven were thus stowed away : a survivor 
reported that they had to burrow amidst the earth and 
stones forming* the ballast, as the only resource to keep 
themselves warm. In this state of unheard-of misery 
many fell grievously sick, but yet received no care at the 
hands of those who guarded them. It would be only pain- 
ful to detail their condition more minutely. Some gene- 
ral idea of the atrocious treatment they met with may be 
formed from the fact, that of the number above stated as 
being pent up in one vessel, only forty-nine were in life at 
the end of the eight months during which they were kept at 
sea. 1 

The number of Highlanders slain upon the field of Cul- 
loden was never well ascertained, but it could not be much 
less than a thousand ; that is, a fifth of their army. The 

his hat in the strife, and his long hair was flying in disorder around his head 
and over his face. The soldiers stood mute in their lines, "beholding the un- 
fortunate nobleman. Among the rest stood Lord Boyd, compelled by his 
situation to witness, without the power of alleviating, the humiliation of his 
father. When the earl came past the place where his son stood, the youth, 
unable to bear any longer that his father's head should be exposed to the 
storm, stepped out of the ranks, without regard to discipline, and taking off 
his own hat, placed it over his father's disordered and wind-beaten locks. He 
then returned to his place, without having uttered a word. 

1 These facts are from the reports of eye-witnesses and sufferers, printed 
in ' Jacobite Memoirs.' 



264 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

list comprised many important men ; for in this, as in all 
the former battles, the chiefs and gentlemen, as the best 
armed, and to show an example of bravery, went foremost 
into the strife, and were of course most exposed. Out of 
the five regiments which charged the English — the Came- 
rons, Stuarts, Frasers, Mackintoshes, and Macleans — almost 
all the leaders and front-rank men were killed. Maclachlan, 
colonel of the regiment last mentioned, which included a 
body of his own name, was killed in the onset. His lieu- 
tenant-colonel, Maclean of Drimnin, who then assumed the 
command, was bringing off his shattered forces, when he 
observed two of his sons, who had fought by his side, se- 
verely wounded, and heard that a third had been left dead 
on the field. Exclaiming, 'It shall not be for nought!' 
this brave old gentleman, without bonnet or wig, rushed 
back into the fight, attacked two dragoons, killed one, and 
wounded the other, but was at last cut down by other three, 
who came up to the assistance of their comrades. Macgil- 
livray of Drumnaglass, colonel of the Mackintosh regiment, 
was killed in the attack, with the lieutenant-colonel, the 
major, and all the other officers of the regiment, with the 
exception, as already stated, of three. Charles Fraser, 
younger of Inverallachy, who was lieutenant-colonel of the 
Fraser regiment, and commanded it on this occasion, 1 was 
killed under the extraordinary circumstances already related. 
Seventeen officers and gentlemen of the Appin regiment 
were slain, and ten wounded ; but Stuart of Ardshiel, who 
commanded it, escaped ; as did Locheil, the chief and leader 
of the Camerons. No distinguished persons fell among the 
Lowland regiments except the Viscount Strathallan 2 and 
the Laird of Aldie. 3 

1 The Master of Lovat, as intimated in a preceding note, was not present at 
the battle of Culloden. He was marching towards the field with a large body 
of his clan, when, meeting the fugitives, he judged it expedient to turn along 
with them, and retire to his own country. In performing this retrograde 
motion the colours were still kept flying, and the bagpipes continued to play. 

2 An officer, being afterwards examined, in a proof which was led in order 
to prove the viscount's death before the act of attainder, and being questioned 
as to his reasons for knowing that that nobleman died on the field of Culloden, 
gave for answer that he had thrust his spontoon through the viscount's body 
on that day. It appears, however, that his lordship did not die immediately 
after his wound. He lived to receive the viaticum from a Catholic priest 
who happened to be upon the field. The sacred morsel was hastily composed 
of oatmeal and water, which the clergyman procured at a neighbouring cot- 
tage. This clergyman went to France, became an abbe\ but, revisiting his 
native country, mentioned the circumstance to one of my informants— the 
Scottish bishop so often quoted. 

3 The Laird of Aldie was killed at Culloden at the head of his battalion. 
Neither his own body, nor that of one of his sons, who accompanied him, 
was ever found.— Letter of his grandson, General Robertson o/Lude, 1810, MS. 



TRANSACTIONS AFTER THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 265 

The field yet bears witness to the carnage of which it 
was the scene. In the midst of its dark heath various little 
eminences are to he seen, displaying* a lively verdure but 
too unequivocally expressive of the dreadful tale. These 
are so distinct and well-defined, that the eye may almost, 
by their means, trace the positions of the armies, or at 
least discover where the fight was most warmly contested. 
The way towards Inverness is fringed with many such 
doleful memorials of the dead. Modern curiosity has, in 
some cases, violated these sanctuaries, for the purpose of 
procuring some relic of the ill-fated warriors ; and the 
Gael, with nobler sentiment, have been till lately in the 
habit of pilgrimising to the spot, in order to translate the 
bones of their friends to consecrated ground, afar in their 
own western glens. 

The duke employed the few days immediately following 
the battle in securing and disposing of the spoil, which was 
very considerable. He had taken thirty pieces of cannon, 
2320 firelocks, 190 broadswords, thirty -seven barrels of 
powder, and twenty-two carts of ammunition. The soldiers 
were allowed half-a-crown for every musket, and a shilling' 
for every broadsword, which they could bring into quarters ; 
it being the anxious wish of government to keep as many 
arms as possible out of the hands of the natives. In order, 
moreover, to put a great public indignity upon the insur- 
gents, the sum of sixteen guineas was allowed for each 
stand of their colours ; and fourteen of these melancholy 
emblems of departed glory being thus procured, they were, 
on the 4th of June, carried by a procession of chimney- 
sweeps from the castle to the cross of Edinburgh, and there 
burnt by the hands of the common hangman, with many 
suitable marks of contempt. 

The victory of Culloden was cheaply purchased by the 
British army. The whole amount of killed, wounded, and 
missing was 310, including few officers, and but one man 
of any distinction. This last was Lord Robert Kerr, second 
son of the Marquis of Lothian, a captain of grenadiers in 
Barrel's regiment, a young man remarkable for his hand- 
some person and great promise. Standing at the head of 
his company when the Highlanders made the charge, he 
received the first man upon his spontoon, but was instantly 
slain with many wounds. Although the victory was mainly 
attributable to the cannon and musketry, some portions of 
the royal army behaved with a degree of courage highly 
honourable to them. There was scarcely an officer or sol- 
dier in Barrel's regiment, and that part of Munro's which 



266 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

was engaged, who did not kill one or two Highlanders 
with his spontoon or bayonet, before giving way to their 
irresistible violence. 

The spreading intelligence of the battle was received, of 
course, with opposite feelings by the two parties. To the 
Jacobites, it came as a total overthrow of the hopes of sixty 
years, and the signal for a letting loose of vengeance against 
Scotland and many of her best and bravest sons. An Aber- 
deenshire gentleman has told the writer of this history 
that his parents, for a month after the battle of Culloden, 
never rose any morning without leaving their pillows 
soaked with tears. It has also been stated that some very 
aged female members of the party, after this time, never 
rose again from bed, though previously accustomed to 
mingle in society. To the nation in general the news 
seemed highly acceptable. The victory was celebrated in 
most towns of the south of Scotland, and throughout Eng- 
land, with bonfires and ringing of bells. The joy of the 
high personages of the state was in proportion to their late 
fears. The duke received the thanks of parliament, and an 
addition of £25,000 to his annual income. 



CHAPTEE XXV. 

SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 

Whilst the warm hlood bedews my veins, 
And unimpaired remembrance reigns, 
Resentment of my country's fate 
Within my filial breast shall beat ; 
And, spite of her insulting foe, 
My sympathising verse shall flow ; 
Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn, 
Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn ! 

Smollett. 

When at last forced off the field, Charles fled with a 
large party of horse, including his chief counsellors and 
friends. His flight was protected by the foot, who followed 
closely behind. The party crossed the Nairn at the ford 
of Falie, about four miles from the battle-field, and there a 
hurried council was held respecting further proceedings. 
Notwithstanding their severe defeat, there can be no doubt 
that the general inclination of the insurgent chiefs was for 
a continuance of the war. They conceived that, if they 
kept together within the Highland frontier, they might 



SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 267 

protect their territories from the vengeance of the royal 
troops, until possibly some succours might arrive from 
France, so as to enable them to act on the offensive, or at 
least until the government, worn out by their resistance, 
might grant them favourable terms. On the other hand, 
Charles appears to have formed a plan for his own conduct, 
in which the views of the Highland gentlemen were not 
regarded. His wish was to make his way as quickly as 
possible to France, in order to use personal exertions in 
procuring those powerful supplies which had been so 
much, but so vainly, wished for. He expected to find 
French vessels hovering on the west coast, in one of which 
he might obtain a quick passage to that country. He 
therefore had determined to proceed in this direction with- 
out loss of time. 

Without announcing his intentions, he desired that the 
remains of the army should rendezvous at Ruthven in 
Badenoch, and there wait for further orders ; after which 
he took his leave of those accompanying him, and set out 
upon his westerly course, attended only by those who had 
been his immediate counsellors and friends during the 
campaign ; namely, Sir Thomas Sheridan, Mr O'Sullivan, 
Captain O'Neal, and Mr John Hay, with a few individuals 
of inferior note. The bulk of the army proceeded towards 
Euthven by the Highland road, and on their way meeting 
Cluny and his men hastening to the field, took them back 
along with them to swell their numbers at the rendezvous. 

Charles had been led out of the field of Culloden, and 
guided on his route hitherto, by one Edward Burke, a poor 
Highlander, who usually acted as a sedan-carrier in Edin- 
burgh, but was now servant to Mr Alexander Macleod of 
Muiravonside. By the same person the party was now 
guided to Tordarroch, 6 where they got no access [the house 
being deserted and shut up], and from Tordarroch to Aber- 
arder, where likewise they got no access, and from Aber- 
arder to Faroline, and from Faroline to Gortuleg.' 1 This 
last place was the seat of Mr Thomas Fraser, chamberlain 
and confidential agent of Lord Lovat, and the same gentle- 
man who had executed a somewhat remarkable mission for 
his lordship at an early period of the campaign. 2 Lovat 
was at this time residing at Gortuleg, and the house had 
that day been the scene of extensive culinary operations, 
for the purpose of celebrating by a feast the victory which 
it was expected the Prince would gain over his enemies. 

1 Burke's narrative, Jacobite Memoirs. 2 See Chapter v. 



268 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

A girl of ten years of age, who lived in the house at the 
time, reported to the late Mrs Grant of Laggan, that in the 
confusion arising from these proceedings she had been shut 
up in a little closet, to be out of the way, and there sat for 
some time an unwilling prisoner, contemplating a marsh in 
the plain below, which was supposed to be a haunt of the 
fairies. Suddenly the tumultuous noise that had filled the 
house all day was succeeded by a deep silence. She ven- 
tured out, and saw no creature in the house but Lovat, 
sitting in his great chair in deep thought. On venturing 
to the door, she found the rest of the inmates standing in 
a group, regarding with the keenest anxiety a party of 
horsemen who had entered the vale below the house. The 
whole circumstances impressed her with the idea that she 
was looking upon a band of those supernatural beings whom 
she understood to haunt the vale occasionally. Having 
heard that the fairies only remain visible at any time between 
one winking of the eyelids and another, she strove to keep 
her eyes open as long as possible, in order to prolong the 
vision. She was soon undeceived, for, on the troop ap- 
proaching, the fatal reverse of the Prince's cause was under- 
stood ; and the women, breaking into mournful cries, began 
to tear off their handkerchiefs to make bandages for the 
wounded. The viands prepared for the feast were seized 
and distributed without ceremony by the party, many of 
whom then proceeded on their course. Charles, with his 
immediate attendants, entered the house, and received the 
first personal greetings of Lord Lovat at the sad mo- 
ment which informed the aged chief of the utter ruin of 
himself and his family. One account represents his lord- 
ship as running about the house in a state of distraction, 
crying out to his attendants, ' Chop off my head ! chop off 
my head ! ' But the report of the young person above-men- 
tioned was, that Lovat received the Prince with expressions 
of attachment, but reproached him with great asperity when 
he heard him declare his intention to abandon the enter- 
prise. i Remember/ he said fiercely, ' your great ancestor 
Robert Bruce, who lost eleven battles and won Scotland by 
the twelfth.' The Prince made little answer, but, after 
taking some refreshment, and drinking a few glasses of 
wine, set out towards Fort Augustus. Lord Lovat was 
soon after carried off in his litter to a place of safety. 1 
Charles and his little party were seen, at two o'clock in 

1 I derive tlie recollections of the young inmate of Gortuleg House from a 
letter of Mrs Grant, MS. The particulars given by the young lady respecting 
the meeting of the Prince and Lovat are, in my opinion, likely to be true. 



SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 269 

the morning 1 , riding rapidly past the ruins of that fort ; 
and about two hours before daybreak they arrived at 
Invergarry, the seat of Macdonell of Glengarry, which 
was, on the present occasion, deserted of its tenants, and 
in a condition very ill calculated to support the hospitable 
character of a Highland mansion. Destitute at once of 
furniture and provisions, and attended by only a single 
domestic, however easily a party of natives might have 
accommodated themselves within its walls, it was parti- 
cularly unfit to entertain a prince and a stranger. This 
was the first day of Charles's wanderings, and its priva- 
tions but too truly omened those of the succeeding five 
months. 

The Prince and his party were so much fatigued with 
their ride, which was one of little less than forty miles, 
that they gladly stretched themselves upon the floor in their 
clothes. They slept till mid-day, when Edward Burke 
having fortunately caught two salmon in the water of 
Garry, they had a better dinner than they expected, though 
the only drink they could procure was the pure element 
from which their meat had been taken. All the company 
here took leave of Charles, except Sullivan, O'Neal, and 
Edward Burke, who was left to be the Prince's guide, and 
whose clothes his Royal Highness now assumed. This small 
party set out at two o'clock for Loch Arkaig, where they ar- 
rived about nine at night, and lodged in the house of Donald 
Cameron of Glenpean. Charles was so excessively fatigued, 
that he fell asleep as Edward Burke was unbuttoning his 
spatterdashes. Next morning, Friday the 18th, they held 
their route still farther westward to Mewboll, a farm-house 
near the extremity of Locheil's country, where they were 
well entertained. A considerable part of the following day 
was spent in waiting for intelligence of their friends, which 
not arriving, they at last set out, for fear of being dis- 
covered and taken. There being no longer any road, they 
were here obliged to abandon their horses, and begin to 
walk on foot. They came in the evening to a place called 
Oban, near the head of Loch Morar, where they took up 
their lodging in a wretched little slieiling or hovel used for 
shearing sheep, near the corner of a wood. 

Next day, Sunday the 20th of April, Charles and his 
three attendants crossed, with inconceivable pain and diffi- 
culty, one of those ranges of lofty and rugged hills which, 
alternately with lochs or arms of the sea, penetrate the 
country at this part of the West Highlands. Their lodg- 
ing-place this evening was at Glenbiasdale, in Arisaig, 



270 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

a small village near the place where the Prince had first 
landed. Here several fugitives joined the dejected little 
party. 

From Ruthven, the day after the battle, Lord George Mur- 
ray wrote a long letter to the Prince, giving in very plain 
terms his opinion of his Royal Highnesses chief advisers, 
to whom he attributed the defeat, and resigning his own 
command, but at the same time manifesting anything but 
a supposition that the war was now to be abandoned. One 
or two thousand men had here assembled, not in the highest 
spirits, but resolute to defend themselves and the territories 
of the insurgent clans as long as they could. We have an 
affecting anecdote from Bishop Mackintosh 1 of the stan- 
dard-bearer of the Duke of Perth arriving this day and 
presenting the colours to his superior, who said, i Poor as 
I am, I would rather than a thousand guineas that they 
are safe.' They lingered at the spot for a few days, but 
were at length dispersed, in consequence of the receipt of a 
letter which the Prince addressed to them from Glenbias- 
dale. In this, after some professions of devotion to them 
and their interests, he informed them that, seeing he could 
do nothing for them on this side of the water, he intended 
instantly to proceed to France, there to ' engage the court 
either to assist us effectually and powerfully, or at least to 

irocure you such terms as you would not obtain otherwise.' 

n the measures they would take for defending themselves, 
he recommended them to confide in the Duke of Perth and 
Lord George Murray. He desired that they would endea- 
vour to keep his departure as long concealed as possible. 
Finally, he called on the Almighty to bless and direct them. 
Although he did not here direct them to disperse, but, on 
the contrary, implied an expectation that they would main- 
tain the struggle, they seem to have considered the letter 
as the death-note of the war. Accordingly, taking a melan- 
choly leave of each other, they dispersed — the gentlemen to 

seek concealment in, or escape from, the country, and the 

common men to return to their homes. 2 

At Glenbiasdale Charles was joined by young Clanranald, 

i Letter, MS. 

2 The Earl of Cromarty had heen left with a party in Sutherland to over- 
awe the loyalists there ; but on the 15th of April he allowed himself to be 
surprised at Dunrobin Castle, apart from his men, by a party of the Earl of 
Sutherland's militia. His men, attacked by an inferior force, were defeated, 
when many were killed, and 178 taken prisoners. The earl himself, his son, 
and several friends, were seized that evening by stratagem, while conferring 
with a party of the assailants respecting terms of surrender. The whole were 
brought in a sloop-of-war to Inverness the second day after the battle of 
Culloden. 



1 



SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 271 

Mr Lockhart younger of Carnwath, Mr iEneas Macdonald, 
and some others, by whom it was reported that the western 
seas were much beset by English vessels, so that the Prince 
could scarcely hope to make an immediate escape in that 
direction without incurring' considerable risk. This was 
staggering intelligence, and caused Charles to consider if 
it would not yet be the best course to remain at the head 
of as many men as he could assemble. He also thought of 
trusting himself amongst the Macleods in the Isle of Skye. 
Clanranald suggested that he might remain where he was ; 
and for his accommodation and concealment a few summer 
sheilings or cots could be fitted up amongst the hills, where 
he would be tolerably safe until a trusty person should take 
a trip to the Isles and look out for a ship in which to con- 
vey away his Royal Highness from the country. 

Mr iEneas Macdonald had at this time recently landed 
from the Isles, in charge of a large sum of French money 
which had been debarked in Barra ; and he was attended 
by a faithful old man, Donald Macleod of Gualtergill, in 
the Isle of Skye, who had been of great use in piloting him 
through very considerable dangers. A message was sent 
to Kinlochmoidart, where Donald now was, pressingly de- 
siring him to come to meet the Prince at Borodale. Donald 
immediately set out, and, in passing through the forest of 
Glenbiasdale, he encountered a stranger walking by him- 
self, who, making up to him, asked if he was Donald 
Macleod of Gualtergill. Donald, instantly recognising 
him, notwithstanding his mean attire, said, i I am the same 
man, please your Highness, at your service.' i Then/ said 
the Prince, ' you see, Donald, I am in distress : I therefore 
throw myself into your bosom, and let you do with me 
what you like. I hear you are an honest man, and fit to 
be trusted.' When the old man, a year after, related these 
particulars to the individual who has reported them, the 
tears were streaming along his cheeks like rain. 

Charles desired Donald to go with letters from him to Sir 
Alexander Macdonald and the Laird of Macleod, requesting 
their protection ; but the old man positively refused, saying 
that such a course would be attended with certain ruin, for, 
so far from being well-inclined to him, they were at this 
moment employed with their men in searching for him at 
a place not above ten or twelve miles distant. Charles then 
asked if he would undertake to pilot him to the Isles, where 
he thought he would be in more safety than in his present 
situation. Macleod answered that he was ready to do any- 
thing in the world for him, and undergo any risk in his 



272 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

behalf, except only that of communicating with the two 
apostate chiefs of Skye. 

Accordingly, on the evening of the 24th, Charles, along 
with Sullivan, O'Neal, Burke, and seven other persons, set 
sail in an open eight-oared boat from Lochnanuagh, the 
bay where he first landed. Donald Macleod, acting as pilot, 
sat at the stern, with Charles betwixt his knees. This aged 
person, being an experienced mariner, was certain, from the 
appearance of the sky, that a storm was about to ensue, and 
intreated the Prince to defer his voyage till next day. But 
Charles insisted upon immediately leaving the continent, 
where he apprehended so much danger. In the boat there 
were four pecks of oatmeal, and a pot in which they could 
boil meat when they landed. 

As old Macleod had foretold, they had scarcely got fairly 
out to sea when a storm arose. The wind blew a tempest ; 
the waves of the Atlantic rose with tumultuous fury ; and 
it was altogether a night surpassing* in danger any that 
Macleod, an experienced boatman, had ever before seen 
upon that wild sea. To add to their distress, the rain poured 
down in torrents, and they had neither pump nor compass. 
In the darkness of the night, none of the crew knew where 
they were, and serious apprehensions were entertained lest 
the boat should either founder or be driven upon Skye, 
where the person of the Prince would be apt to become a prey 
to the militia, who were roaming about that island in great 
numbers. At length a period was put at once to their 
danger from the sea, and their apprehensions from the 
militia, by the approach of daylight, which showed them 
to be on the coast of the Long Island, the storm having 
carried the boat upwards of sixty miles in nine or ten hours. 
They landed at Kossnish, the south-east angle of the isle of 
Benbecula, and, having drawn their boat upon dry land, 
prepared a humble entertainment with meal and the flesh 
of a cow which they had seized and killed. 

The first consideration with the Duke of Cumberland, 
after securing the immediate fruits of his victory, was to 
disarm the ill-affected clans, and thus deprive them of all 
power of creating further disturbance. It has been repre- 
sented by his friends c that he was at first disposed to take 
mild methods with them, and promised his protection to all 
who should come to his camp, deliver their arms, and submit 
to the king's mercy, before a certain day ; that some com- 
plied, and were dismissed in peace, with protections ; but 
that great numbers, especially the Camerons, Macdonalds, 
Grants, and Frasers, were perfidious, often promising to 



SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 273 

surrender at a certain time, and as often breaking their 
promises ; that others equivocated, pretending to surrender 
their arms, by bringing in old useless guns and swords, 
while they concealed their best arms at home ; and that his 
royal highness was then obliged to lay the rod more heavily 
upon them. 71 On the other hand, the invitation to submit 
and give up their arms was not such as could have been 
expected to go far with men like the Highlanders under the 
existing circumstances. No guarantee of ultimate safety 
for life or property was held out. The protections were only 
for six weeks, at the end of which time, if disarmed, they 
might have become an unresisting prey to the vengeance of 
the government. The fears which they no doubt enter- 
tained were confirmed by an unfortunate act of the duke 
at Inverness. Sixty-nine men of Glenmorriston, and twelve 
from the vale of Urquhart, in all eighty-one, having been 
induced by the Laird of Grant to come to Inverness to sur- 
render, were, upon some trifling demur, seized and put with 
the other prisoners into the king's vessels, where they were 
subjected to the horrible treatment already described. 2 An 
act of this kind might well deter the disaffected clans from 
throwing themselves unarmed upon the royal clemency, 
even if there had been no general reasons, as undoubtedly 
there were, for hesitating to take such a step. 

Besides, it does not appear to be quite true that the duke 
waited for the alleged instances of perfidiousness before 
wreaking vengeance on the insurgents. So early as the 18th 
of April, two days after the battle, he sent Brigadier Mor- 
daunt with a detachment to the Aird — a district belonging to 
Lord Lovat, a short day's march from Inverness — in order to 
subject it to military execution. Beaufort Castle, the seat of 
Lovat, was burnt, and the whole of the horses, cows, sheep, 
meal, and other provisions found in the district were 
brought away, for the use of the army. The aged chief, 
from a distant mountain top, beheld the house of his ances- 
tors given to the flames. 

The duke took vigorous measures to surround the dis- 
affected districts, in order to prevent the insurgents who 
had retired thither from making their escape. Cobham's 
and Mark Kerr's regiments of dragoons were posted along 
the east coast of Scotland ; the passes from the Highlands 
into the Low Country were guarded by militia ; Lord For- 

1 Scots Magazine, 1746, p. 287- 

2 Narrative of the Rev. James Hay of Inverness, Jacobite Memoirs. Those 
who did not die on shipboard were sent to Barbadoes, where, three years after, 
out of the eighty-one who surrendered only eighteen were living. 

VOL. V. R 



274 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745^6. 

trose, son of the Earl of Seaforth, raised the Mackenzies to 
guard the passages to the Isles ; and the Monroes, Mackays, 
and Earl of Sutherland's men took care of the more remote 
northern counties. British cruisers, at the same time, 
hovered on both coasts, to intercept any French or other 
vessels in which the insurgents might be attempting to leave 
the country. These measures were very effectual for the end 
in view, and in the course of a few weeks most of the jails 
north of the Forth were filled with prisoners. Lord Bal- 
merino was one of the first persons of any eminence 
taken. He was brought by the Grants to Inverness on 
the 21st of April, and soon after sent, with the Earls of 
Cromarty and Kilmarnock, by a vessel to London. It has 
been said that his lordship voluntarily delivered himself, at 
the recommendation of Mr Grant younger of Rothiemur- 
chus. The Marquis of Tullibardine was one of those who 
rendezvoused at Ruthven. When the dispersion took place, 
he travelled southward in company with an Italian named 
Mitchell, an old servant of the Chevalier St George ; and, 
being in a bad state of health, he was tempted to seek refuge 
in the mansion of Drummakill, near Loch Lomond, the lady 
of the house being related to him. Mr Buchanan of Drum- 
makill was, however, a zealous loyalist and officer of militia, 
and deemed it his duty to deliver up the marquis. On the 
27th of April his lordship was conducted as a prisoner to 
Dumbarton Castle, and thence to Leith, where he embarked 
in a war-vessel, by which he was carried to London. It is 
stated that Drummakill was so much despised for this 
action, that no gentleman of his neighbourhood would after- 
wards be seen in his company. 1 Early in May, the govern- 
ment had also secured Sir James Kinloch, Colonel Ker of 
Graden, the Honourable William Murray, brother of the 
Earl of Dunmore, Mr Stirling of Kier, Mr Stirling of Craig- 
barnet, and some others. A party, in which were included 
Lord Ogilvie, Mr Hunter of Burnside, Mr Fletcher of 
Benshie, David Graham of Duntroon, and David Fother- 
ingham, who had been governor of Dundee for Prince 
Charles, got on board a vessel riding off the Lights of Tay, 
and reached Norway in safety. The British government 
had enjoined all friendly powers to aid in apprehending the 
unfortunate adherents of the Prince. The king of Denmark 
had consequently ordered all vessels landing in his ports to 
be examined, and all persons not possessing passports to be 
apprehended. These gentlemen were accordingly seized and 

1 Jacobite Memoirs, p. 3, Note. 



SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 275 

put into prison in the castle of Bergen, but were soon after 
allowed to make their escape to France. It may be added, 
that Mr Hunter was one of the fi.xe exiles whom Smollett 
describes in such touching" terms in his novel of ' Peregrine 
Pickle/ as living at Boulogne, and going every day to the 
sea-side l in order to indulge their longing eyes with a pro- 
spect of the white cliffs of Albion, which they must never 
more approach.' 

Secretary Murray was sick at the time of the battle of Cul- 
loden. When the conflict was pending, he was carried in a 
litter to Foyers, on Loch-Xess side. At first, the bad issue 
of the battle was concealed from him, and he was carried 
across the lake to the house of Glenmorriston for safety, 
but without the reason being disclosed to him. Dr Cameron 
there told him of the defeat. After sundry removes, he 
was carried to Invergarry, where he hoped to hear that a 
stand had been made by the remains of the army. Here 
he met the Duke of Perth l quite worn out with fatigue/ 
and learned that, most of the chiefs being dispersed, there 
was no chance of a prolongation of the war. He then went 
to Locheil's country, and meeting that chief, devised with 
him, Stuart of Ardshiel, and some others, the raising of 
a small body of men, with whom they would 'keep the 
hills, till such time as they could be satisfied that the French 
either were or were not in earnest to support them.' At 
the same time they took measures to bring other chiefs into 
their scheme, and to detain the Prince on the mainland ; 
but in the latter object they were not successful, the Prince 
having sailed before they could reach him with a message. 
Meanwhile, two French ships arrived at Borodale with 
six casks of gold, which were secured by the secretary. 
These vessels, after beating off some British cruisers in the 
loch, departed with the Duke of Perth, i then in a dying 
condition/ Lord John Drummond, Lord Elcho, Sir Thomas 
Sheridan, Mr Lockhart younger of Carnwath, Mr Hay, and 
several others. The money was carried to Loch Arkaig 
by Dr Cameron. 1 

For three weeks after the battle of Culloden, no attempt 
was made to penetrate that tract of the central and west 
Highlands which formed the chief stronghold of the Jaco- 
bite clans. There a considerable number of the insurgents 
were still disposed to offer armed resistance to the govern- 
ment. On the 8th of May, a meeting of leaders and men 
of consequence took place at Muirlaggan, near the head of 

1 Narrative by Murray, MS. in possession of Mr W. H. Murray of Edin- 
burgh. 



276 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Loch Arkaig, for the purpose of concerting" measures for 
a new rising. The chief person present was young 
Locheil, who, after being wounded in both ankles at the 
battle, had been conducted away on horseback by his 
faithful clansmen, and was now a cripple, unable to travel 
on foot. Accident had brought Lord Lovat to the spot, 
and there were also present Clanranald, Glenbucket, John 
Eoy Stuart, Major Kennedy, Secretary Murray, Mac- 
donald of Barrisdale, Mr Alexander Macleod, and a 
nephew of Keppoch. 1 These gentlemen were greatly en- 
couraged in their project by the landing of the six casks 
of gold, which amounted to no less than £38,000. It was 
agreed that the Camerons, Macdonells of Glengarry, Kep- 
poch, and Clanranald, the Stewarts of Appin, the Mackin- 
nons and Macleods, should rendezvous on the 15th at 
Auchnacarry, in the braes of Lochaber ; while the Frasers, 
Mackintoshes, Macphersons, and the Atholemen should be 
apprised of the resolution, that they might take measures 
to rise on the same day, and join the rest. These resolutions 
and others were written down, and the document has been 
preserved and printed; 2 but no signed copy has ever been 
found. To enable the chiefs to raise their men, Mr Murray 
distributed 600 louis-d'ors amongst them, and further gave 
forty to the Laird of Mackinnon, and sent twenty to 
Macleod of Raasay and Macdonald younger of Scothouse. 

This attempt to renew the war came to nothing. If we 
are to believe Mr Murray, the conduct of Lovat on this 
occasion was marked by his usual duplicity, cunning, and 
treachery — ' He complained that the order he had required 
to empower him to seize upon the person of Mr Forbes of 
Culloden had not been granted in the terms he required ; 
namely, dead or alive. From which he endeavoured to 
show how easy it would have been to accomplish his death, 
and thereby have prevented the junction of M'Leod with 
the other northern clans, who had done so much hurt to 
the Prince's affairs ; and that, provided the order had been 
in these terms, the attempt upon his house would not have 
been abortive ; but, as they had not sufficient power, they 
were obliged to make a shameful retreat, inconsistent with 
the honour of his clan ! ' Lovat played them altogether 
false as to the sending of his clan to the rendezvous, and 
Mr Murray also accuses Lochgarry of showing indifference 
to the interest of the party on that occasion. i Clanranald 

1 Narrative of John Cameron, Presbyterian minister at Fort- William (an 
actor on the Prince's side), Lyon in Mourning, MS. i. 162. 

2 In Mr Home's appendix. 



SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 277 

disappointed them not only of his quota of men, hut of the 
ammunition he had engaged for.' On the day that the 
resolutions were entered into, the Earl of Loudoun left 
Inverness at the head of 1700 militia, to take possession of 
Lochaber and the adjoining districts. Locheil had got about 
300 Camerons together, and Glengarry and Barrisdale 150 
men each ; cattle were purchased by Mr Murray to supply 
the gathering troops with food, and ammunition for their 
use was about to be sent by Clanranald from Arisaig, when 
the advance of the Earl of Loudoun obliged them all to 
disperse. Locheil was nearly surprised by a body of troops, 
whom he mistook at a distance for Barrisdale's men, and 
who would have taken him, if some faithful follower had 
not given him timely intelligence of the red crosses which 
they wore in their bonnets. 1 He escaped by crossing the 
loch in a boat which he kept on purpose. Immediately 
before the dispersion of the party, Mr Murray had the 
greater part of his French money buried in secret places, 
£15,000 being sunk in a rivulet near the head of Loch 
Arkaig, and £12,000 near the foot of the same lake, i £5000 
being reserved for necessary expenses.' 2 

The Earl of Loudoun executed his mission in Lochaber 
with mercy, and induced a considerable number of the 
people to deliver up their arms. General Campbell, at the 
head of his clan militia, was equally successful in Appin 
and Glenco. But the duke was already exasperated by 
the delay, and had now resolved to take very severe mea- 
sures to reduce the disaffected to obedience. On the 23d 
of May he marched from Inverness, with Kingston's horse 
and eleven battalions of foot, and encamped at Fort-Augus- 
tus. It is said that, in the well connected with this ruined 
fort, the bodies of eleven of the late garrison were found ; 
and it w T as supposed that these men had been drowned by 
the insurgent troops after the taking of the place in March. 
There was no proof that such was the case, and indeed it 
was extremely unlikely : the more obvious supposition is, 
that the bodies were those of the men killed in the siege. 
The discovery, however, and the supposition, inflamed the 
rancour borne by many of the officers and soldiers against 
the disaffected clans, and probably had no small effect in 

1 John Cameron's Narrative, as before. 

2 The particulars here given respecting the money possessed by Mr Murray 
are from a well-authenticated copy, which the author possesses, of an ac- 
count which the secretary seems to have drawn up from memory of the 
monies which he received and disbursed at this time. As this document 
relates some curious circumstances, it is printed at the close of the present 
narrative. 



278 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

hardening their minds to the duty now imposed upon them. 
Meanwhile, many of the Macphersons had surrendered to 
a party of troops marching' from Perth to Inverness, and 
the men of Strontian, Morven, and Ardnamurchan had 
also submitted. 

From Fort- Augustus the duke despatched parties in all 
directions around, to disarm and desolate the various dis- 
affected districts. The cruelties practised by these parties 
were such as, if not perfectly well-authenticated, we could 
scarcely believe to have been practised only a century ago 
in our comparatively civilised land. Not only were the 
mansions of the chiefs Locheil, Glengarry, Cluny, Keppoch, 
Kinlochmoidart, Glengyle, Ardshiel, and many others 
plundered and burnt, but those of many inferior gentlemen, 
and even the huts of the common people, were in like man- 
ner destroyed. The cattle, sheep, and provisions of all kinds 
were carried off to Fort- Augustus. In many instances the 
women and children were stripped naked, and left exposed : 
in some, the females were subjected to even more horrible 
treatment. A great number of men, unarmed and inoffen- 
sive, including some aged beggars, were shot in the fields 
and on the mountain-side, rather in the spirit of wantonness 
than for any definite object. Many hapless people perished 
of cold and hunger amongst the hills. Others followed, in 
abject herds, their departing cattle, and at Fort- Augustus 
begged, for the support of a wretched existence, to get the 
offal, or even to be allowed to lick up the blood, of those 
which were killed for the use of the army. Before the 10th 
of June the task of desolation was complete throughout all 
the western parts of Inverness-shire ; and the curse which 
had been denounced upon Scotland by the religious enthu- 
siasts of the preceding century was at length so entirely 
fulfilled in this remote region, that it would have been lite- 
rally possible, to travel for days through the depopulated 
glens without seeing a chimney smoke, or hearing a cock 
crow. 

It is generally allowed that the duke himself, though the 
instigator of these cruelties, did not show so much open or 
active cruelty as some of the more immediate instruments 
of the royal vengeance. General Hawley was one of the 
most remorseless of all the commanding officers ; apparently 
thinking no extent of cruelty a sufficient compensation for 
his loss of honour at Falkirk. The names of Lieutenant- 
Colonel Howard, Captain Caroline Scott, and Major Lock- 
hart, are also to be handed down as worthy of everlasting* 
execration. The last, in particular, did not even respect the 



SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 279 

protections which Lord Loudoun had extended (by virtue of 
a commission from the duke) to those who had taken an 
early opportunity of submitting, but used only to observe 
to the unhappy individuals who expected to be saved on 
that account, as he ordered them to execution and their 
houses to the flames, that l though they were to show him 
a protection from Heaven, it should not prevent him from 
doing his duty V 

It reflects great credit upon the Highlanders that, in the 
midst of these calamities, they displayed no disposition to 
take mean or insidious modes of avenging them, though, 
with arms in their hands, and acquainted as they were 
with the country, they might have often done so both easily 
and securely. Only one soldier is said to have perished by 
the hand of an assassin during the whole of the frightful 
campaign. A domestic belonging to the house of Glen- 
garry, on reaching his home after a short expedition, found 
that, during his absence, his property had been destroyed, 
his wife violated, and his home rendered desolate. In the 
bitterness of the moment he vowed deadly revenge. Learn- 
ing that the officer who had commanded the spoliators, and 
who had been the ravisher of his wife, rode upon a white 
horse, he rushed abroad with his musket, determined never 
to rest till he had accomplished his vow. After wandering 
several weeks without discovering the offender, he one day 
observed an officer approaching at the head of a party 
mounted upon the white horse he had heard described. 
This was not the real perpetrator of his wrongs, but Major 
Monro of Culcairn, a younger brother of the late Sir Robert 
Monro of Foulis, who had, unfortunately for himself, bor- 
rowed the animal on which he rode. The infuriated High- 
lander took aim from behind some craggy banks which 
overlooked the road, and shot the major dead. He then 
fled through the rugged country, and was soon beyond 
pursuit. On afterwards learning that he had killed an 
innocent man, he burst his gun, and renounced the vow 
which had bound him to veng-eance. 

Whilst the natives and the fugitive Prince were enduring 
every species of hardship, Duke William and his myrmidons 
at Fort- Augustus spent their time in a round of festivities.. 
Enriched by the sale of their spoils, the soldiers could pur- 
chase all the luxuries which the Lowlands could supply, or 
which could be conveniently transported over the Gram- 
pians ; and for several weeks their camp exhibited all the 
coarse and obstreperous revelries of an English fair. In 
order to amuse them, the duke instituted races, which were 



280 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

run by the trulls of the camp, with circumstances of inde- 
cency forbidding 1 description. General Hawley also ran a 
race with the infamous Howard, and, probably rendered a 
proficient in that exercise by his practice at Falkirk, gained 
it by four inches. 

Not content with laying* w T aste the country of the active 
insurgents, they extended their ravages, before the end of 
the season, over peaceful districts, to the very gates of 
the capital; and for some time Scotland might be said 
to have been treated throughout its whole bounds as a 
conquered country, subjected to military law. The voice 
of Lord President Forbes was occasionally heard amidst 
these outrages, like that of Pity described in the allegory 
as interposing in some barbarous scene ; but on this amiable 
man remonstrating with the duke, by a representation that 
his soldiers were breaking the laws of the land, his royal 
highness is said to have answered with scorn, ( The laws, 
my lord ! By G — , I'll make a brigade give laws ! ? He 
was afterwards heard at Inverness to allude to the Presi- 
dent as 'that old woman who talked to me about hu- 
manity. ' No form of trial was adopted with the insur- 
gents, even within a few miles of the seat of the Court of 
Session; nor did the soldiers ever appeal to the neigh- 
bouring justices for warrants when about to plunder their 
houses. The lawful creditors of unfortunate individuals 
were, in innumerable instances, mortified at seeing a law- 
less band seize the property to which they looked for pay- 
ment, and unceremoniously expose it to public sale for their 
own behalf. 

Besides the measures already described as having been 
taken for the capture of the chevalier and his friends, others 
were adopted of a nature which showed the anxiety of 
government to attain that object. The General Assembly 
of the church, about the end of May, was required to com- 
mand all the established clergymen throughout the country 
to read a proclamation from their pulpits, in which the duke 
ordered every minister and every loyal subject to exert 
themselves in discovering and seizing the rebels ; and the 
General Assembly complied with the requisition. Many of 
the individual clergymen, with a better spirit, refused to 
read this paper, or left it to be read by their precentors ; in 
consequence of which, the duke sent another order to the 
church, commanding every minister to give in a list of the 
rebels belonging to his parish. With this last still fewer 
complied, the clergymen of Edinburgh ranking among the 
recusants ; and the duke, having then used individual appli- 



SUPPRESSION OP THE INSURRECTION. 281 

cations, and even personal intreaties in vain, troubled them 
with no more. 

It is not observable in any authentic documents that 
those who gave food or shelter to the fugitives were 
punished with death ; but it is at least certain that a pro- 
clamation was read in the churches of Perth and its vicinity, 
by order of the Duke of Cumberland, threatening 1 with that 
punishment all who concealed them, or even their arms. 
Rewards were also offered in Ireland and the Isle of Man 
for the apprehension of any who might land in those terri- 
tories ; and the British ministers at foreign courts in alliance 
with his majesty were ordered to secure all who might take 
refuge there. No means, in short, were omitted which 
might tend to the great object of exterminating these un- 
happy objects of state resentment. 

Macdonald of Barrisdale having surrendered with his 
adherents, was immediately liberated — an instance of mercy 
so extraordinary, as to give rise to a rumour that he had 
undertaken to aid in seizing the fugitive Prince. About 
the beginning of May, as already mentioned, the Duke of 
Perth and some others got off in the two French ships 
which had landed the large sum of money in Moidart ; but 
the duke, completely exhausted by fatigue, died at sea a few 
days after going on board. Locheil remained for several 
months in concealment, and ultimately sailed in the same 
vessel with the Prince. Early in June, Lord Lovat was 
discovered and taken prisoner in a small island in Loch 
Morrar, where he had lived for twelve days on oatmeal and 
water. Lord George Murray escaped to the south, where, 
late in the year, he embarked in disguise for France ; but 
Mr Murray of Broughton, after making his way through 
the passes, was seized at the house of his brother-in-law, Mr 
Hunter of Polmood, in Peeblesshire. 1 He and Lovat were 
immediately sent to London. 

1 Murray, in his narrative, gives a minute account of his journey to the 
Lowlands, and of the separate journey of his wife, who was at this time 
in a peculiarly delicate state. While the lady lay in Locheil's country, a 
message was sent to an English commanding officer explaining her con- 
dition, and requesting a pass for her, that she might travel to Edinburgh ; 
but this being refused, she had to make the best of her way thither in dis- 
guise, which she succeeded in doing, and was, in the ensuing September, 
while residing there in concealment, delivered of a son, who was baptised 
Charles, but did not long survive. 

Mrs Murray went abroad at her husband's request, but did not remain 
faithful to him. A few years after the insurrection, the ex-secretary married 
a young Quaker lady named Webb, whom he found in a provincial English 
boarding-school. She had six children to him, the eldest being Mr Charles 
Murray, afterwards a well-known comedian. The ex-secretary sold his 
estate of Broughton, in 1764, to Dickson of Havannah, whose agent in the 



282 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Charles's wanderings — the long island. 

He might put on a hat, a muffler, and a kerchief, and so escape. 

Shakspeare. 

Charles was left in the remote and desolate island of 
Benbecula, where he had arrived after a night voyage of no 
ordinary danger. His accommodations in this place were of 
the humblest description. A cow-house, destitute of a door, 
was his palace ; his couch of state was formed of filthy straw 
and a sailcloth ; and the regal banquet, composed of oatmeal 
and boiled flesh, was served up in the homely pot in which 
it had been prepared. The storm continued for fourteen 
hours ; and it was not till the third day after (Tuesday, the 
29th of April) that he could leave the island. They set sail 
for Stornoway, the chief port in the Isle of Lewis, where 
Donald Macleod entertained hopes of procuring a vessel to 
convey the Prince to France. A storm, however, coming 
on, as on the former occasion, their little vessel was driven 
upon the small Isle of Glass, about forty miles northward of 
Benbecula, and fully as far distant from Stornoway. They 
disembarked about two hours before daybreak, and, find- 
ing the inhabitants engaged in the hostile interest under 
the Laird of Macleod, were obliged to assume the character 
of merchantmen who had been shipwrecked in a voyage 
to Orkney; Sullivan and the Prince calling themselves 
Sinclair, as father and son; the rest of the crew taking 
other names. They were entertained here by Donald Camp- 
bell, tacksman or leaseholder of the island, who was so kind 
as to lend his own boat to Donald Macleod, that he might 
go to Stornoway in order to hire a vessel for the Prince's 
service. Donald set out next day, leaving the Prince in 
Campbell's house. 

transaction was Mr Walter Scott, W.S., father of Sir Walter. This circum- 
stance seems to have been what occasioned the remarkable visit of Murray 
to that gentleman, which Mr Lockhart has related in his Life of Sir Walter 
Scott. 

Mr Charles Murray, who was horn in 1754, was a little hoy playing about 
the room in which his father sat in their house in London when a tall, stout, 
red-faced gentleman came in, and remained for some time conversing with 
his father. Some weeks after, the father said to the son, ' Charles, do you 
remember that stout gentleman who called upon me some time ago ? ' * Yes, 
sir.' ' Well, boy, remember you have seen your Prince.' 



Charles's wanderings — the long island. 283 

A message came from the faithful Macleod on the 3d of 
May, intimating" his having* succeeded in his object, and 
requesting the Prince immediately to set forward, Another 
boat, therefore, being manned, Charles set sail next day for 
Stornoway. The wind proving- contrary, he was obliged to 
land in Loch Sheffort, at the distance of above twenty miles 
from Stornoway. All this way he had to walk on foot over 
a pathless moor, which, in addition to all other disadvan- 
tages, was extremely wet. Being misled by the ignorance 
of their guide, the disconsolate little party did not get near 
Stornoway till the 5th at noon ; when, stopping at the Point 
of Arynish, about half a mile from the town, they sent 
forward their guide to Donald Macleod, imploring him to 
bring them out some refreshment. Donald soon came with 
provisions, and took them to the house of Mrs Mackenzie 
of Kildun, where the Prince went to sleep. Returning to 
Stornoway, Donald was confounded to observe the people 
all rising in commotion. His servant, having become tipsy, 
blabbed for whom the vessel was designed, at the same time 
hinting that the Prince was in a condition to take it by 
force, if he could not obtain it by good-will. This intima- 
tion was confirmed by a chain of alarms, communicated 
from a clergyman in South Uist to his father in the Harris, 
and thence to another minister in the Lewis. Donald 
exerted his eloquence to show them the absurdity of their 
fears, representing the inability of the Prince, with so small 
a band, to do them the least injury, and finally threatening 
that, if they should hurt but a hair of his head, it would be 
amply and fearfully revenged upon them, in this their 
lonely situation, by his Royal Highness's foreign friends. 
By working alternately upon their pity and their fears, he 
succeeded in pacifying them ; and all they at last desired 
was, that he should leave their country. Donald requested 
to have a pilot, but nobody could be persuaded to perform 
that service. He then returned to the house in which the 
Prince was reposing, and informed him of the disagreeable 
aspect of his affairs. Some proposed to fly instantly to the 
moors ; but Charles resolved to stand his ground, lest such 
a measure should encourage his enemies to pursue. They 
soon after learned that the boat in which they came to Lewis 
had been taken out to sea by two of the crew, while the 
other two had fled to the country, from fear of the people 
of Stornoway. They were therefore obliged to spend the 
afternoon, in a state of painful alarm, at Mrs Mackenzie's 
house. 

The Prince, Sullivan, and O'Neal, had at this time only 



284 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

six shirts amongst them. During* their residence at Kildun 
they killed a cow, for which the lady refused to take pay- 
ment, till compelled by his Royal Highness. They also 
procured two pecks of meal, with plenty of brandy and 
sugar. With these provisions, the whole party set sail next 
morning in the boat, which had returned ashore during the 
night. They thought at first of going to Orkney, but the 
crew, now only two in number, would not undertake so 
long a voyage. The Prince wished to go to Bollein in 
Kintail ; but this also the men refused, on account of the 
length of the voyage. A resolution was then taken to 
steer southward, as the only other course open to them. 
Soon after, four large vessels appearing at a distance, they 
put into the small desert Isle of Eiurn or IfFurt, near Harris, 
a little way north of Glass, where they had been a few days 
before. 

The island was temporarily occupied by only a few fisher- 
men, all of whom fled to the interior at the approach of the 
boat, which they believed to be sent with a pressgang from 
the vessels within sight. They left their fish in large 
quantities drying upon the shore, to the great satisfaction 
of the wanderers, who made a hearty meal upon it. Their 
lodging here was a miserable hovel, the roof of which was 
so imperfect, that it had to be covered with a sailcloth. 
They lay upon the floor, keeping watch by turns. The 
things given to them by Mrs Mackenzie of Kildun added 
much to their comfort. Out of the brains of her cow the 
Prince baked a cake, which they ate with relish. They 
were also able to make a little hot punch, which cheered 
them greatly. Generally, Ned Burke acted as cook and 
baker ; but the Prince, when he lent his hand to that work, 
usually excelled his humble follower. One day, while the 
rest were asleep, the Prince and Burke employed themselves 
socially in preparing a dish of fish, when the latter remem- 
bering a piece of butter which Lady Kildun had given them, 
went for it to the boat, but found it jammed into a mass of 
crumbled bread. He thought it useless ; but the Prince, 
saying that bread could never spoil butter, took it, melted it, 
and presented it with the fish, which it greatly improved. 
While thus humbling himself, he and the gentlemen of his 
party took their food apart from the boatmen, though both 
parties had no better knives and forks than their fingers, 
and no table or chairs but the bare rock. When about to 
leave the island, the Prince was going to leave money upon 
the place where they had got the fish, but Donald Macleod 
prevented him, by representing the necessity of acting up 



Charles's wanderings — the long island. 285 

to their supposed character of a pressgang ; adding-, accord- 
ing to the report of Dugald Graham, 

* Is it not the man-of-war-men's way 
To take all things, hut not to pay ? ' 

Charles yielded to the suggestions of his sagacious coun- 
sellor, though not without reluctance. 

After a residence of four days upon this little island, the 
party once more set sail (May 10), and, cruising along the 
shores of the Long Island, touched at Glass (where they 
had been before), with the intention of paying Donald 
Campbell for the hire of his boat. Before they had got 
time to land, four men came up, and it was thought neces- 
sary to send Edward Burke ashore to confer with them, 
before the Prince should hazard his person on the island. 
These fellows manifesting a desire of seizing the boat, 
Burke, to escape their clutches, was under the necessity of 
hastily jumping- back into it and pushing off from the shore. 
On account of the calm, they had to row all night, although 
excessively faint for want of food. About daybreak they 
hoisted their sail to catch the w T ind, which then began to 
rise. Not having any fresh water, they were obliged, dur- 
ing this miserable day, to subsist upon meal stirred into 
brine. Charles himself is said to have partaken of this 
nauseous food with some degree of satisfaction, observing 
that, if ever he mounted a throne, he should not fail to 
remember ' those who dined with him to-day.' They con- 
sidered themselves fortunate, however, in being able to 
qualify the salt-water drammock, as it was called, with a 
dram of brandy. 

As they proceeded in their boat, they suddenly found 
themselves near an English man-of-war, which immediately 
gave them chase. The Prince called the men to row with 
their utmost speed, saying, ' If we escape this danger, you 
shall have a handsome reward ; if not, I'll be sunk rather 
than be taken.' The ship, after a pursuit of three leagues, 
found itself becalmed. The Prince's light skiff soon got 
out of sig'ht, and went in amongst the rocks at the Point of 
Boundil, in the Harris. Soon after, on stealing out to pur- 
sue his course, the boat was espied and pursued by another 
ship ; and it was with the greatest difficulty the crew got 
ashore at Loch-wiskaway in Benbecula. Scarcely had he 
landed when a storm arose, and blew his pursuers off the 
coast. Charles, elated at the double escape he had made, 
could not help exclaiming to his companions that he be- 
lieved he was not designed to die by either weapon or water. 



286 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Soon after landing- upon Benbecula, one of the boatmen 
began to search among 1 the rocks for shell-fish, and had the 
good fortune to catch a crab, which he held up to the Prince 
with a joyful exclamation. Charles instantly took a pail or 
bucket, which they carried with them, and ran to receive 
the prize from the man's hands. They soon filled this vessel 
with crabs, and then directed their steps to a hut about two 
miles inland, Charles insisting 1 upon carrying the bucket. 
On reaching the hovel, it was found to be one of the very 
meanest and most primitive description, the door being so low, 
that they were obliged to enter upon their hands and knees. 
Resolving 1 to remain here for some time, Charles ordered 
his faithful servant Burke to improve the hovel by lowering* 
the threshold. He also sent a message to the old Laird of 
Clanranald, the father of his youthful adherent, acquainting" 
him of his arrival, and of his present hapless condition. 

Clanranald, who had lived in the Long Island during the 
whole progress of the war, came immediately, bringing" with 
him some Spanish wines, provisions, shoes, and stockings. 
He found the youth who had recently agitated Britain in 
so extraordinary a manner, and whose pretensions to a 
throne he considered indubitable, reclining" in a hovel little 
larger than an English hog-sty, and perhaps more filthy ; 
his face haggard with disease, hunger, and exposure to the 
weather ; and his shirt, to use the expressive language of 
Dougal Graham, as dingy as a dish-clout. He procured him 
six good shirts from Lady Clanranald, with a supply of 
every other convenience which was attainable; and after 
spending a day or two in the hut, it was determined that 
he should remove to a more sequestered and secure place of 
hiding near the centre of South Uist. 

Before removing, the Prince despatched Donald Macleod 
to the mainland with letters to Locheil and Secretary 
Murray, desiring to know the state of affairs in the country, 
and requesting from the secretary a supply of cash. Donald 
made his way to these two gentlemen, who were still at the 
head of Loch Arkaig, though all hope of continued resistance 
to the government had been given up. He got letters from 
both gentlemen, informing the Prince of the utter ruin of 
his affairs on the mainland, but he did not obtain the.desired 
supply of cash. According to his own account, 1 the secre- 
tary said he had only sixty louis-d'ors, which was little 
enough for his own necessities : but it is not easy to reconcile 
this with what we have seen regarding the large sum landed 

1 Jacobite Memoirs. 



Charles's wanderings— the long island. 287 

from the French vessel. The most feasible explanation is, 
that the money had by this time been secreted, and the 
country where it lay was so much possessed by the king's 
troops as to prevent its being* approached. Donald returned 
to the Prince after an absence of eighteen days. 1 He found 
the royal fugitive in a better hut than that in which he 
had left him, having two cow-hides stretched out upon 
four sticks, as an awning to cover him when asleep. His 
habitation was called the Forest-house of Glencoridale, 
being situated in a lonely and secluded vale, with a con- 
venient access either to the hills or to the sea in case of a 
visit from the enemy. South Uist is remarkable above all 
the Hebrides for abundance of game, and Charles had here 
amused himself with field-sports. He showed himself 
remarkably expert in shooting fowl upon the wing. Some- 
times he also went out in a boat upon the creek near his 
residence, and with hand-lines caught a species of fish 
called lyths. Most of his faithful boatmen still remained 
w r ith him, and he was provided by Clanranald with a dozen 
of stout gillies to act as watchmen and couriers. The old 
gentleman, as w T ell as his brother Boisdale, often attended 
him, to cheer his solitude and administer to his comforts. 

In order to give the reader a proper idea of the danger 
which the Prince ran at this time, it is necessary to re- 
mind him that the reward of £30,000, which had been 
offered by the government for his apprehension at the 
beginning- of the campaign, still hung over his head, and 
indeed was now more ostentatiously offered than before. 
The magnitude of the sum w^as such as seemed calculated 
to overcome every scruple on the part of at least his infe- 
rior adherents ; and it was daily expected throughout the 

1 It appears from the manuscript of Secretary Murray that the two mes- 
sengers who came from the Prince to see Locheil and Murray did not 
speak of money while they were at the head of Loch Arkaig, and not till 
the party was on the west coast two days after, Murray having gone thither 
with the design of sailing to Uist and hringing Charles hack to the main- 
land, although extremely sick at the time, and little prepared for such 
an expedition. The design of sailing to Uist for this purpose was prevented, 
and the two messengers returned hy themselves. Murray states that, on 
their asking money from him for the Prince, he answered * that he was 
surprised they had not mentioned that when at the head of Loch Arkaig, 
when it was in his power to have given them any sum they could demand, 
hut that now he had none alongst with him, save a little for common 
necessaries on the road.' This seems sufficient to defend the secretary from 
the charge brought hy Donald Macleod ; for in such circumstances it could 
have been no easy matter to command a supply of money from the hoard 
buried beside Loch Arkaig. Had it been possible, there could be no reason 
for Murray refusing to send a supply out of so large a sum, unless, indeed, as 
he insinuates, he had reason to doubt the faith of the messengers, who, he 
says, showed him no written authority from the Prince. 



288 ' HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

country that he would be given up by one or other of those 
to whom he intrusted his person. That no means for the 
accomplishment of such an end might be omitted, parties of 
soldiers were sent out in every direction, full of eagerness 
to secure the prize. The duke's instructions to these emis- 
saries were invariably expressed in the simple words, i No 
prisoners, gentlemen — you understand me.' Among all 
who were employed in this duty, no man seems to have 
been more zealous than John Campbell of Mamore (after- 
wards fourth Duke of Argyle), who had some months 
before been invested with a command over the troops and 
garrisons of the West Highlands. On a report arising 
that the chevalier had taken refuge in St Kilda, General 
Campbell instantly repaired to the island with a large fleet. 
St Kilda, i placed far amidst the melancholy main/ is the 
remotest of all the western islands, and is peopled by only a 
few aboriginal families, who subsist chiefly on fish and sea- 
fowl, paying a rent to the Laird of Macleod, whose factor, 
sent once a-year to collect their dues, was the only visitor 
whom they ever saw. On Campbell's fleet coming within 
sight, the people fled in terror to caves and the tops of 
mountains, and it was not without considerable difficulty 
that the general could procure a hearing amongst them. 
His men asked those whom they found 'what had become 
of the Pretender?' expecting to discover their guilt by 
their confusion, or perhaps to get a candid confession. 
But the only answer they could obtain from the simple 
islanders was, 'that they had never heard of such a person.' 
All that they could tell about the late troubles was, that 
they heard a report, probably communicated by some stray 
fishermen, that their laird (Macleod) had been at war 
with a woman a great way abroad, and that he had got the 
better of her. 

Charles spent several weeks in comparative comfort at 
Glencoridale. One day he shot a deer, which was brought 
to their retreat. As they were preparing some collops from 
it, a poor starved boy came in amongst them, and seeing 
the dish, thrust his hand into it to satisfy his hunger. 
Burke, who acted as cook, reproved the act with a stroke of 
the back of his hand, when the Prince interfered, saying, 
i Ned, you don't remember the Scriptures, which enjoin us 
to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. You ought rather 
to give him meat than a stripe.' The Prince then ordered 
some clothes for the boy, and paid for them, adding, ' I 
cannot see any one perish for lack of food or raiment, hav- 
ing it in my power to preserve him.' This kindness met an 



ungrateful return ; for the boy, after being fed and clothed, 
haviDS" detected the quality of the Prince, and hearing 
of the approach of 1500 Campbells, Macleods, and Mac- 
donalds, went to inform them where they might find the 
object of their search. Fortunately, they did not believe 
his tale, and only treated him with ridicule. It may here 
be remarked, that upwards of a hundred people were aware 
of Charles being lodged in Glencoridale, and not one, be- 
sides this b : ir known to give the slightest hint on 
the subject to parties unfriendly to him. 

During his residence in Glencoridale, Lady Margaret 
Macdonald, wife of Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat, sent 
the newspapers of the day on various c ; the Prince, 

in whose behalf she felt deeply, notwithstanding that her 
husband had remained loyal to the government. The me- 
dium employed by Lady Margaret for this purpose was 
Hugh Macdonald of Br^.sh-^ir. in North Uist, an hottest 
gentleman, well-affected to the Prin : though he 

had not been in his army. The time at length arrived 
the military authorities became aware that Charles w 
the Long Island, and a resolution was taken to land several 
large bodies of militia and regulars in that range, in the 
L:vr :■: o?.:::u::::r Lim. ^::e:: La^y Margaret Learned this 
resolution, she sent intelligence of it :: Balshair, with a 
request that he would seek out the royal fug i- 
municating it to him, concert measures with other Mends 
for h:5 saf-rTv. Balshair accordingly proceeded to Glenco- 
ridale, after making an appointment with Boisdale to meet 
him at the same place, but to go to it by a different route, 
in order that their going might attract less attention. We 
have a curious account of the visit from Balshair himself : — 

c Being a misty day, I came near them before the 
covered me, which surprised them. One of them, namely, 
Lieutenant-Colonel O'Sullivan, on my approach, bespoke the 
Young Gentleman [the Prince] in French : accordingly, he 
ran into the house. One Captain Allan Macdonald, in their 
company, who knew me, advised them not to be concerned, 
as they were in no danger from me. O'Sullivan introduces 
me to the hut. He [the Prince] saluted me very kindly, 
and told me he was heartily glad to see the face of an 
honest man in such a remote corner. His dress was then a 
tartan short-coat and vest of the same, got from Lady Clan- 
ranald ; his nightcap all patched with soot-drops ; his shirt, 
hands, and face, patched with the same ; a short kilt, tartan 
hose, and Highland hrogs; his upper coat being English 
tdoth. He called a dram, being the first article of a High- 

VOL. V. s " 



290 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

land entertainment ; which, being* over, he called for meat. 
There was about a half stone of butter laid on a timber 
plate, and near a leg of beef laid on a chest before us, all 
patched with soot-drops, notwithstanding its being washed 
toties quoties. As we had done, who entered the hut but 
Boisdale, who seemed to be a very welcome guest to the 
Young Gentleman, as they had been together above once 
before. Boisdale then told him there was a party come to 
Barra in suit of him. He asked what they were. Bois- 
dale said they were Macdonalds and Macleods. He then 
said he was not the least concerned, as they were High- 
landers, and more especially such. I spoke to Boisdale 
about leaving Glencoridale, as our stay there would be of 
dangerous consequence, and of no advantage to him. The 
Young Gentleman told us, as it was but seldom he met with 
friends he could enjoy himself with, he would not on any 
account part with us that night. Boisdale says to me, we 
could not, in good manners, part with him that night. I 
replied, if he would risk staying himself — all this in High- 
lands [Gaelic] — that I would for my part. The Young 
Gentleman advises Edward Burke to fill the bowl ; but 
before we'd begin with our bowl, Boisdale insisted on his 
being shaved first, and then putting on a clean shirt, which 
he was importuned to do ; and Burke shaved him. Then 
we began with our bowl, frank and free. As we were 
turning merry, we were turning more free. At last I 
starts the question if his Highness would take it amiss if I 
should tell him the greatest objections against him in Great 
Britain. He said not. I told that popery and arbitrary 
government were the two chiefest. He said it was only bad 
constructions his enemies put on't. " Do you know, Mr 
Macdonald," he says, " what religion are all the princes in 
Europe of ? " I told him I imagined they were of the same 
established religion of the nation they lived in. He told me 
then they had little or no religion at all. Boisdale then told 
him that his predecessor, Donald Clanranald, had fought 
seven set battles for his ; yet, after the Restoration, he was 
not owned by King Charles at court. The Prince said, 
" Boisdale, don't be rubbing up old sores, for if I came 
home, the case would be otherwise with me." I then says 
to him that, notwithstanding of what freedom we enjoyed 
there with him, we could have no access to him if he was 
settled at London ; and [he] told us then, if he had never 
so much ado, he'd be one night merry with his Highland 
friends. We continued this drinking for three days and 
three nights. He still had the better of us ? and even of 



Charles's wanderings— the long island. 291 

Boisdale himself, notwithstanding 1 his being as able a bowls- 
man, I daresay, as any in Scotland.' 1 

Charles, though he at first spoke lightly of the approach- 
ing militia, soon became aware that his position in South 
Uist was one of considerable danger. It became necessary 
for him to shift his quarters ; yet he and his friends could 
scarcely tell in what direction he ought to fly. They went, 
however, into the barge (June 14), and proceeded to Wiay 
island, between South Uist and Benbecula, where they re- 
mained four nights. On the 18th, the Prince, O'Neal, and 
Burke went to Rossinish, leaving O'Sullivan and Macleod 
in Wiay. Charles passed two nights at Rossinish ; when, 
being informed that some militia were approaching Ben- 
becula, he thought it would be best to return to Coridale. 
How to do so was the question ; for the militia boats were 
already hovering between Wiay, where his boat was, and 
his present position. However, Macleod and O'Sullivan, 
setting out in the night, came in the boat to Rossinish, and 
took him off. The entire party was at sea in the barge on 
their way back to Coridale, when they saw two men-of- 
war, one of which proved to contain the notorious Captain 
Caroline Scott, on his way with a party to direct and sti- 
mulate the search of the militia, and with orders to explore 
the Long Island from end to end rather than not seize the 
Wanderer. The fugitive party put into a place called 
Aikersideallich, near Uishnish, where they spent the night, 
the Prince sleeping in the cleft of a rock, with his bonnet 
drawn over his eyes. Afterwards they took boat again, 
and rowed to the south part of South Uist, designing to go 
into Loch Boisdale, where they hoped to have Mr Mac- 
donald of Boisdale for their friend. On the way, seeing 
some ships, they had to take refuge for the day in a creek, 
and it was not till night that they succeeded in reaching 
the place for which they were bound. Coming on shore 
much exhausted, they took up their quarters in an old 
tower, where preparations were making for food and rest, 
when Donald Macleod espied two sail, which they knew to 
be English. Charles, with three of the company, imme- 
diately fled to the mountains, while the rest took the boat 
farther into the loch. The ships passed away to seaward, 
and they were then enabled to meet again. For two nights 
more they stayed in the open fields, with the sails of the boat 
covering them. Their hopes of assistance from Boisdale 
were here cruelly frustrated by intelligence that that gentle- 

1 Lyon in Mourning, MS. v. 192. 



292 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

man had been taken into custody, notwithstanding* his ap- 
parent neutrality. Nevertheless, Lady Boisdale sent them 
four bottles of brandy, and contributed every other comfort 
in her power. On the third night they went farther into 
the loch, and there rested for two nights more. But here 
they were astounded by the information that the ferocious 
Scott had landed near them, and that they were nearly en- 
vironed by their enemies. Charles no sooner learned this, 
than, i taking" a couple of shirts under his arm/ he set off 
towards Benbecula, allowing" none to follow him but O'Neal. 
According* to the recollection of Donald Macleod, it was on 
the 24th of June that he thus parted, as it proved finally, 
with the three or four men who for nearly two months had 
followed him under every danger and every hardship. Of 
this parting the faithful boatman could not speak to the 
reporter of his memoirs without 'greeting sore.' 1 Before 
going away, the Prince caused the rowers to be paid a shil- 
ling a-day for their services, and gave Donald Macleod a 
draught on Mr John Hay for sixty pistoles ; which, however, 
Donald never found an opportunity of presenting. 

It was at this time of peculiar difficulty that Charles was 
to be indebted for his preservation to the gallantry and 
generous self-devotion of a young female — the celebrated 
Flora Macdonald. This lady, daughter of the deceased Mr 
Macdonald of Milton, in South Uist, usually resided in the 
Isle of Skye with her mother, who was now married to 
Hugh Macdonald of Armadale, in that island. For the 
present Flora lived in Uist, on a visit to her brother, and was 
on very intimate terms with the Clanranald family, whose 
mansion of Ormaclade was only three or four miles distant 
from her brother's house. The circumstances under which 
this lady was brought to aid the chevalier have been ob- 
scurely related. According to her own narrative, 2 she had 
undertaken the task before Saturday the 21st of June, which, 
however, does not well consist with the accounts given by 
the other parties. O'Neal's relation, of which at this place 
Bishop Forbes approves as being consonant to what he had 
heard from Miss Macdonald' s own mouth, gives the follow- 
ing particulars as occurring during the night on which the 
Prince left Loch Boisdale. i At midnight we came to a 
hut [belonging to Macdonald of Milton], where, by good 
fortune, we met with Miss Flora Macdonald, whom I for- 
merly knew. I quitted the Prince at some distance from 
the hut, and went with a design to inform myself if the In- 

1 Jacobite Memoirs, 402. 2 Jacobite Memoirs, 413. 



Charles's wanderings— the long island. 293 

dependent Companies were to pass that way next day, as we 
had been informed. The young" lady answered me, not, and 
said that they were not to pass till the day after. Then I 
told her I had brought a friend to see her ; and she, with 
some emotion, asked me if it was the Prince. I answered 
her it was, and instantly brought her in. We then con- 
sulted on the imminent danger the Prince was in, and could 
think of no more proper and safe expedient than to propose 
to Miss Flora to convey him to the Isle of Skye, where her 
mother lived. This seemed the more feasible, as the young 
lady's [step]father, being captain of an Independent Com- 
pany, would accord her a pass for herself and a servant, to 
go to visit her mother. The Prince assented, and imme- 
diately proposed it to the young lady ; to which she an- 
swered with the greatest respect and loyalty, but declined 
it, saying Sir Alexander Macdonald was too much her 
friend [for her] to be the instrument of his ruin. I endea- 
voured to obviate this, by assuring her Sir Alexander was 
not in the country, and that she could, with the greatest 
facility, convey the Prince to her mother's, as she lived 
close by the water-side. I then demonstrated to her the 
honour and immortality that would redound to her by such 
a glorious action ; and she at length acquiesced, after the 
Prince had told her the sense he would always retain of so 
conspicuous a service. She promised to acquaint us next 
day, when things were ripe for execution, and we parted for 
the mountains of Coridale.' It seems probable that one fact 
only of any importance is omitted here — namely, that Miss 
Macdonald had been brought to the hut by some previous 
concert, and expected there to meet with the Prince. It 
also appears that the hut where Charles and Miss Mac- 
donald met was in Benbecula, to which the Prince had 
gone after leaving Loch Boisdale. 

Miss Macdonald now set out for Clanranald's house, in 
order to prepare for her expedition. In crossing the sea- 
ford between Benbecula and South Uist, she and her ser- 
vant, having no passports, were made prisoners by a party 
of militia. Desiring to see the officer in command, she was 
told he would not be there till next morning. She then 
asked his name, and upon their mentioning Mr Macdonald 
of Armadale (her stepfather), she chose rather to stay all 
night in their guard-house than answer any more questions. 
Next day (Sunday the 22d) Mr Macdonald arrived, and 
was greatly surprised to find his stepdaughter in custody ; 
but being, as there is good reason to believe, well-disposed 
to the unfortunate Prince, he readily entered into Miss 



294 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Flora's views, and not only liberated her, but furnished 
her with a passport for herself, her servant, and a female 
named Betty Burke, under which character Prince Charles 
was to be concealed, as also a letter to her mother, recom- 
mending' this Betty Burke as an Irish girl who could spin 
well, and would therefore suit the lady exactly, as he knew 
she was at present in want of such an assistant in her do- 
mestic duties. 

Thus furnished, Flora and Lady Clanranald, with some 
attendants, came, on the 27th, to the royal wanderer, with 
the disguise necessary for the character which he was to 
assume. On entering* the hut, they found his Royal High- 
ness engaged in roasting" the heart and liver of a sheep upon 
a wooden spit ; a sight at which some of the party could not 
help shedding tears. Charles, always the least concerned at 
his distressing 1 circumstances, though never forgetting" the 
hopes inspired by his birth, jocularly observed that it would 
be well perhaps for all kings if they had to come through 
such a fiery ordeal as he was now enduring. They soon 
after sat down to dinner, Miss Macdonald on his right hand 
and Lady Clanranald on his left. A small shallop had 
been previously made ready, and was now floating near the 
shore. 

While thus sitting, the party was informed by a mes- 
senger that General Campbell, with a great number of sol- 
diers, had arrived at Benbecula ; and soon after another 
messenger came with the intelligence that Captain Fergu- 
son, with an advanced party, was come to Ormaclade. Lady 
Clanranald judged it proper to go home to amuse them. 
Ferguson examined her very strictly ; but she readily 
excused herself by the pretext that she had been visiting a 
sick child. She was afterwards taken into custody, along 
with her husband, and both paid for their kindness to the 
Prince by a long confinement in London. 

The Prince was now obliged to part with his last remain- 
ing companion, O'Neal. The poor fellow made an earnest 
request to be allowed to accompany him on his further 
wanderings, but Miss Macdonald could not be prevailed 
upon to agree to the proposal. In the forenoon (Saturday, 
June 28), it being resolved to proceed to sea, Miss Mac- 
donald desired Charles to dress himself in the disguise, 
which consisted of ' a flowered linen gown, a light-coloured 
quilted petticoat, a white apron, and a mantle of dun camlet 
made after the Irish fashion with a hood ; ' and the party 
soon after set out for the beach. On this occasion Miss 
Macdonald was attended by one Neil Macdonald, commonly 



Charles's wanderings— the long island. 295 

called Neil Mackechan, a sort of preceptor in the Clanranald 
family, and who may have some interest in the eyes of the 
readers of modern European history, as having* become the 
father of Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum. They 
arrived at the beach very wet and very much fatigued, and 
made a fire upon a rock, to keep themselves warm till night. 
They were soon greatly alarmed by seeing four wherries 
full of armed men apparently making towards the shore, 
which made them extinguish their fire and conceal them- 
selves. The wherries, however, sailed by to the southward 
without stopping, though within a gunshot of the place 
where our little party were lying concealed amongst the 
hea:h. 

About eight o'clock in the evening, the party got safely 
away from Benbecula, and directed their course to the Isle of 
Skye. It may here be remarked that generally through- 
ou: the extraordinary wanderings of the Prince, after he 
himself had made the most surprising escapes from his 
enemies, most of those who aided him fell almost imme- 
diately after into the hands of those who had been in search 
of him. Two or three days after he left the Long Island, 
a French cutter, containing* 120 men, arrived at South Uist 
for the purpose of carrying* him off. O'Sullivan, who was 
much reduced by his late style of living, immediately went 
on board. O'Neal, anxious to serve the Prince, made an 
appointment to be taken up by the vessel at Loch Seaforth, 
near the Isle of Raasay, and set out in pursuit of the Prince, 
that he might bring him to that place, and so get him car- 
ried away to France. The plan misgave; the vessel sailed 
for its own country, carrying O'Sullivan into safety; and 
O'Neal, after some wanderings in Skye and elsewhere, was 
apprehended in Benbecula, and sent prisoner to London. 
The journal of this person shows a somewhat confused in- 
tellect, but he certainly possessed a generous heart. Donald 
Macleod wandered about for some time, enduring great 
hardships, which must have been severe on a man who 
had seen sixty-seven years : he was at length taken 
(July 5) in Skye, and also sent to London as a prisoner. 
Edward Burke was more fortunate. He obtained conceal- 
ment in a lonely part of the Isle of Harris till after the Act 
of Indemnity passed in 1747, when, being safe, he returned 
to Edinburgh, purchased (probably by Jacobite contribu- 
tions) a sedan chair, and contentedly spent the remainder 
of his days in his original occupation. 



296 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

CHAPTEE XXVII. 

Charles's wanderings — skye. 

Far over yon hills of the heather so green, 

And down by the corrie that sings to the sea> 
The lovely young Flora sat sighing her lane, 

The dew on her plaid, and the tear in her ee. 
She looked at a boat with the breezes that swung., 

Away on the wave like a bird of the main, 
And aye as it lessened, she sighed and she sung, 

' Fareweel to the lad I shall ne'er see again. 
Fareweel to my hero, the gallant and good, 

Fareweel to the lad I shall ne'er see again !' 

Jacobite Song. 

The weather continued fair till the boat containing* the 
Prince had got several leagues from shore, when it became 
somewhat stormy. Exposed in such a vessel to the cold 
night air, at the mercy of a raging sea, and at the same 
time haunted by the fear of man's more deadly hostility, 
the sensations of the little party cannot be supposed to have 
been very agreeable. Charles could not help perceiving the 
uneasiness of his attendants, and anxious to compensate, by 
all the means in his power, for the pain which he occasioned 
to them, he endeavoured to sustain their spirits by singing 
and talking. He sang the lively old song entitled 'The 
Restoration ;' and told a few playful stories, which yielded 
them some amusement. 

When day dawned, they found themselves out of sight of 
land, without any means of determining in what part of 
the Hebrides they were. They sailed, however, but a little 
way farther, when they perceived the lofty mountains and 
dark bold headlands of Skye. Making with all speed 
towards that coast, they soon approached Waternish, one of 
the western points of the island. They had no sooner drawn 
near to the shore than they perceived a body of militia 
stationed at the place. These men had a boat, but no oars. 
The men in Miss Macdonald's boat no sooner perceived them, 
than they began to pull heartily in the contrary direction. 
The soldiers called upon them to land, upon peril of being 
shot at ; but it was resolved to escape at all risks, and they 
exerted their utmost energies in pulling off their little vessel. 
The soldiers then put their threat in execution by firing, 
but fortunately without hitting the boat or any of its crew. 
Charles called upon the boatmen 'not to mind the villains;' 



Charles's wanderings — skye. 297 

and they assured him that, if they cared at all, it was only 
for him ; to which he replied, with undaunted lightness of 
demeanour, 'Oh, no fear of me V He then intreated Miss 
Macdonald to lie down at the bottom of the boat, in order 
to avoid the bullets, as nothing, he said, could give him at 
that moment greater pain than if any accident were to befall 
her. She refused, however, to do as he desired, unless he 
also took the same measure for his safety, which, she told 
him, was of much more importance than hers. It was 
not till after some altercation that they agreed to ensconce 
themselves together in the bottom of the boat. The rowers 
soon pulled them out of all further danger. 

When once more fairly out to sea, and in some measure 
recovered from this alarm, Miss Macdonald, overcome with 
the watchfulness and anxiety of the night, fell asleep upon 
the bottom of the boat. Charles had previously rendered 
the kindest attentions to his amiable preserver, refusing* to 
partake of a small quantity of wine which Lady Clanranald 
had brought to him before embarking, upon the plea that it 
should be reserved for her, both on account of her sex, and 
the extraordinary hardships she was undergoing. He now 
sat down beside her, and watched with tender and anxious 
regard, lest the boatmen should happen to disturb her in the 
course of their awkward evolutions. 

In the eagerness of Duke William's emissaries to take 
Charles upon the Long Island, where they had certain 
information he was, Skye, on which the Prince was now 
about to land, was left comparatively unwatched. The 
island was, however, chiefly possessed by two clans — the 
Sleat Macdonalds and Macleods, whose superiors had proved 
renegade to the Stuart cause, and even raised men on the 
opposite side. Macleod went so far in his hostility as to 
exert himself personally, and with real eagerness, to effect 
the capture of the Prince. Parties of their militia were 
posted throughout the island, one of which had nearly taken 
the boat with its important charge when it was off Water- 
nish. At the same time the people of the island did not in 
general sympathise in the views of their chiefs, and there 
were some gentlemen of both clans who were well-affected 
to the Prince, and had even been in arms on his behalf. 

Proceeding on their voyage a few miles to the northward, 
the little party in the boat put into a creek, or cleft, to rest 
and refresh the fatigued rowers ; but the alarm which their 
appearance occasioned in a neighbouring village quickly 
obliged them to put off again. At length they landed 
safely at a place within the parish of Kilmuir, about twelve 



298 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

miles from Waternish, and very near Sir Alexander Mac- 
donald's seat of Mugstat. 

Sir Alexander was at this time at Fort-Augustus, in 
attendance on the Duke of Cumberland; but his spouse, 
Lady Margaret Macdonald— one of the beautiful daughters 
of Alexander and Susanna, Earl and Countess of Eglintoune, 
a lady in the bloom of life, of elegant manners, and one who 
was accustomed to figure in the fashionable scenes of the 
metropolis— now resided at Mugstat. Well-affected from 
education to the house of Stuart, and possessed of humane 
feelings, she had pitied the condition of the Prince in the 
Long Island, of which she was made aware, and had sent 
him, as has been already stated, the newspapers of the day, 
which he had regarded as a great obligation. Mr Mac- 
donald of Balshair, who served as a medium for this inter- 
course, had recently transmitted a letter of thanks, written 
by the Prince to Lady Margaret, enclosed in one to his 
brother Donald Roy Macdonald, one of the Prince's cap- 
tains, who was now residing, for the cure of a wound in his 
foot (got at Culloden), in the house of Mr John Maclean, 
surgeon in Trotternish. Donald Roy, a well-bred Highland 
gentleman, 1 delivered the Prince's letter to Lady Margaret 
with his own hand, and immediately after, as he had been 
ordered, desired her ladyship to burn it, for the sake of her 
own safety, as well as that of the Prince. But, kissing it, 
she said, ' No, I will not burn it — I will preserve it for the 
sake of him who sent it to .me. Although King George's 
forces should come to the house, I hope I shall find a way 
to secure the letter.' 2 She hid it in a closet. The purport 
of Balshair's letter to Donald Roy was, that the Prince (the 
escape with Flora Macdonald not being then projected) de- 
signed to leave the Long Island and take refuge in a small 
solitary isle named Fladdachuan, six miles from Trotternish, 
and inhabited by only one family, tenants under Sir Alex- 
ander Macdonald. Donald was desired to keep a look-out, 
and be ready to assist the Prince with necessaries in that 
island. ' At the interview which Donald had with Lady 
Margaret, she entered heartily into the scheme, and gave 
him six shirts, and twenty broad pieces of gold, for the 

1 He was one of the only two gentlemen of Sir Alexander Macdonald's fol- 
lowing who went out. Mr Forbes preserves several Latin verses by him, 
bearing out the representation made by General Stewart, in his work on the 
Highland regiments, respecting the learned education given in those days 
to the gentlemen of the Western Islands. 

2 When some troops afterwards came to the house in quest of the Prince, 
she deemed it prudent to destroy this document, which she did with great 
regret 



Charles's wanderings— skye. 299 

Prince's use. She offered blankets, which Donald refused, 
as he could not g*et them carried without the risk of exciting 1 
suspicion. During 1 the interval between the receipt of these 
letters and the arrival of the Prince in Skye, Donald had 
gone to Fladdachuan to look out for the expected stranger, 
but of course in vain. Lady Margaret had also more re- 
cently received, by a Mrs Macdonald of Kirkibost in North 
Uist, a letter informing her of the altered scheme, and of the 
concern which Miss Flora was taking in the matter. She 
was therefore in some measure prepared for the arrival of 
the Prince in Skye, but not for his coming so near her 
residence. 

When the boat containing the Wanderer had landed, Miss 
Macdonald, attended by Neil Mackechan, proceeded to the 
house, leaving Charles, in his female dress, sitting on her 
trunk upon the beach. 1 On arriving at the house, she de- 
sired a servant to inform Lady Margaret that she had called 
on her way home from the Long Island. 2 She was imme- 
diately introduced to the family apartment, where she found,, 
besides Mrs Macdonald of Kirkibost, a Lieutenant Macleod, 3 
the commander of a band of militia stationed near by, three 
or four of whom were also in the house. There was also 
present Mr Alexander Macdonald of Kingsburgh, a gentle- 
man of the neighbourhood, who acted as chamberlain or 
factor to Sir Alexander, and who was, she knew, a sound 
Jacobite. Miss Macdonald entered easily into conversation 
with the officer, who asked her a number of questions — as 
where she had come from, where she was going, and so forth 
— all of which she answered without manifesting the least 
trace of that confusion which might have been expected 
from a young lady under such circumstances. The same 
man had been in the custom of examining' every boat which 
landed from the Long Island : that, for instance, in which 
Mrs Macdonald of Kirkibost arrived had been so examined ; 
and I can only account for his allowing that of Miss Flora 
to pass, by the circumstance of his meeting her under the 
imposing courtesies of the drawing-room of a lady of rank. 
Miss Macdonald, with the same self-possession, dined in 
Lieutenant Macleod's company. Seizing a proper opportu- 
nity, she apprised Kingsburgh of the circumstances of the 
Prince, and he immediately proceeded to another room, and 
sent for Lady Margaret, that he might break the intelligence 

1 Narrative (MS.) in my possession, by Colonel Macalister of Barr and Cour 
in Argyleshire. 

2 Flora Macdonald's Narrative, Jacobite Memoirs. 

3 Son of Donald Macleod of Balmeanagb. 



300 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

to her in private. She was greatly alarmed, insomuch as to 
scream, and exclaim aloud that she and her family were un- 
done ; but Kingsburgh, who was a cool, sensible man, soon 
calmed her fears in some degree, assuring her that, if ne- 
cessary, he would take the Prince to his own house. He 
was now, he said, an old man, and it made little difference 
to him whether he should immediately die with a halter 
about his neck, or await a natural death, which could not 
be far distant. 1 It was then agreed to send an express to 
Donald Roy, requesting his immediate attendance on 
business of the utmost importance. It does not appear to 
have been thought that Donald was in any danger from 
Lieutenant Macleod ; and indeed the reverse of this appears, 
for he tells us himself 2 that he at this time used to meet the 
militia men and jest with them on his late career as a rebel 
officer. For the protection, however, of Lady Margaret, the 
letter was directed by Mrs Macdonald of Kirkibost, and put 
into the messenger's hands, as from her. 

When Donald soon after approached the house, he saw 
Lady Margaret and Kingsburgh walking together in the 
garden, as in deep consultation. Her ladyship's first address 
to him was, c Oh, Donald, we are ruined forever!' 3 The 
three now held an anxious council as to the best means of 
disposing of the Prince, whose resting-plaoe for the mean- 
time was at the bottom of the garden in which they were 
walking. It was suggested that he might proceed in the 
boat to the island of Raasay; but this was seen to be dan- 
gerous, as he would require to pass a military party in sail- 
ing along the coast in that direction. It was at last deter- 
mined that he should be sent overland to Portree, the prin- 
cipal port in Skye, and thence transported to Raasay. What 
made this island seem so fitting' a refuge was, that the pro- 
prietor, a principal man of the clan Macleod, had been in 
the Prince's army with his ' following,' his eldest son alone 
remaining loyal, to save the estate in case of the worst. It 
was arranged that Donald Roy should be at Portree on the 
arrival of the Prince, after having in the meantime sought 
out the young Laird of Raasay, in order to consult about 
putting his Royal Highness under his father's charge. It 
was further contemplated that Raasay and Donald Roy 
might conduct the Prince to Seaforth's country on the main- 
land, and place him amongst the Mackenzies; but after- 
wards it was found that Charles objected to this part of the 



J Colonel Macalister's Narrative. 

2 Narrative printed in Jacobite Memoirs. 3 Donald Roy's Narrative. 



Charles's wanderings— skye. 301 

scheme, thinking that to go from place to place was safer 
than to stay in any one district. 

Donald Roy now set out in quest of young" Baasay, who, 
he understood, was at Tottrome near Portree. Soon after, 
while Miss Flora still carried on conversation in the dining- 
room, Kingsburgh took his leave, as to go home ; provided 
himself with a bottle of wine, a tumbler, and some biscuits ; 
and went to introduce himself to the fugitive Prince. 
Charles was not now so near Mugstat House as at first. 
Mackechan had in the meantime gone to inform him that 
Kingsburgh was to come and take charge of him, and also to 
conduct him to a more secluded spot at a greater distance. 
Kingsburgh had some difficulty at first in finding the place : 
at length, seeing a few sheep run off in alarm, and cross a 
dry-stone enclosure, and calculating that they must have 
been startled by a human being, he went to the spot, and 
there found Charles in his female disguise. The Prince, on 
seeing him, rose up and came forward threateningly, with 
a large knotted stick in his hand. ' Are you Mr Macdonald 
of Kingsburgh? 7 he demanded; which being answered in 
the affirmative, he instantly changed his demeanour, and 
said, 6 Then let us be going.' Kingsburgh requested him 
to delay a little while, in order to take some refreshment, 
and spreading out his wine, tumbler, and biscuits upon the 
top of a rock, enabled the famished Prince to make a hearty 
meal, in the course of which he drank familiarly to his 
future conductor. They then proceeded on their journey, 
the first object of which was Kingsburgh House, situated at 
some miles' distance on the north shore of Loch Snizort. 
As they walked along, Mr Macdonald remarked, in high 
spirits, how fortunate it was that he had been at Mugstat 
that day. He had come, he said, without any reason of 
either business or duty which he could remember. 'I'll 
tell you the cause,' said Charles ; c Providence sent you 
there to take care of me.' He evinced on other occasions 
an inclination to suppose himself under the protection of a 
special Providence; and he certainly had as much cause 
for forming such a notion as the most of those who have 
fallen into the same belief. 

Some time after, when it might have been supposed that 
Kingsburgh and the Prince would be a little way advanced 
on their journey, Flora Macdonald rose from table to take 
her departure. Lady Margaret affected great concern at 
her short stay, and intreated that she would prolong it 
at least till next day; reminding her that, when last at 
Mugstat, she had promised a much longer visit. Flora, 



302 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

on the other hand, pleaded the necessity of getting* imme- 
diately home to attend her mother, who was unwell, and 
entirely alone in these troublesome times. After a proper 
reciprocation of intreaties and refusals, Lady Margaret, 
with great apparent reluctance, permitted her young friend 
to depart. 

Miss Macdonald and Mackechan were accompanied in 
their journey by Mrs Macdonald of Kirkibost, and by that 
lady's male and female servants, all the five riding on horse- 
back. They soon came up with Kingsburgh and the Prince, 
who had walked thus far on the public road, but were soon 
after to turn off upon an unfrequented path across the wild 
country. Flora, anxious that her fellow-traveller's servants, 
who were uninitiated in the secret, should not see the route 
which Kingsburgh and the Prince were about to take, 
called upon the party to ride faster ; and they passed the 
two pedestrians at a trot. Mrs Macdonald's girl, however, 
could not help observing the extraordinary appearance of 
the female with whom Kingsburgh was walking, and ex- 
claimed that she i had never seen such a tall impudent- 
looking woman in her life ! See ! ' she continued, addressing 
Flora, 6 what long strides the jade takes! I daresay she's 
an Irishwoman, or else a man in woman's clothes.' Flora 
confirmed her in the former supposition, and soon after 
parted with her fellow-travellers, in order to rejoin Kings- 
burgh and the Prince. 

These individuals, in walking along the road, were at 
first a good deal annoyed by the number of country people 
whom they met returning from church, and who all ex- 
pressed wonder at the uncommon height and awkwardness 
of the apparent female. The opportunity of talking to their 
landlord's factotum being too precious to be despised, these 
people fastened themselves on Kingsburgh, who, under the 
particular circumstances, felt a good deal annoyed by them, 
but at last bethought himself of saying, ** Oh, sirs ! cannot 
you let alone talking of your worldly affairs on Sabbath, 
and have patience till another day?' They took the pious 
hint, and moved off. 1 In crossing a stream which traversed 
the road, Charles held up his petticoats indelicately high, 
to save them from being wet. Kingsburgh pointed out 
that, by doing so, he must excite strange suspicions among 
those who should happen to see him ; and his Koyal High- 
ness promised to take better care on the next occasion. 
Accordingly, in crossing another stream, he permitted his 

1 Account of the P *s escape, Scots Magazine, 1749. 



Charles's wanderings — skye. 303 

skirts to hang* down and float upon the water. Kingsburgh 
again represented that this mode was as likely as the other 
to attract observation ; and the Prince could not help 
laughing at the difficulty of adjusting this trifling and yet 
important matter. His conductor further observed that, 
instead of returning the obeisance which the country people 
made to them in passing by a curtsy, his Royal Highness 
made a bow ; and also that, in some other gestures and atti- 
tudes of person, he completely forgot the woman, and re- 
sumed the man. 'Your enemies/ remarked Kingsburgh, 
6 call you a pretender ; but if you be, I can tell you you 
are the worst at your trade I ever saw.' ' Why/ replied 
Charles, laughing, c I believe my enemies do me as much 
injustice in this as in some other and more important par- 
ticulars. I have all my life despised assumed characters, 
and am perhaps the worst dissimulator in the world.' The 
whole party — Charles, Kingsburgh, and Miss Macdonald 
• — arrived in safety at Kingsburgh House about eleven at 
night. 

The house of Kingsburgh was not at this time in the 
best possible case for entertaining guests of distinction; 
and, to add to the distress of the occasion, all the inmates 
had long been gone to bed. The old gentleman, however, 
lost no time in putting matters in proper trim for affording 
a supper to the party. He introduced Charles into the 
hall, and sent a servant up stairs to rouse his lady. Lady 
Kingsburgh, on being informed of her husband's arrival, 
with guests, did not choose to rise, but contented herself 
with sending down an apology for her non-appearance, and 
a request that they would help themselves to whatever was 
in the house. . She had scarcely despatched the servant, 
when her daughter, a girl of seven years, came running up 
to her bedside, and informed her, with many expressions 
of childish surprise, that her father had brought home the 
most \ odd, muckle, ill-shaken-up wife she had ever seen — 
and brought her into the hall too ! ' Kingsburgh himself 
immediately came up, and desired her to lose no time in 
rising, as her presence was absolutely necessary for the 
entertainment of his fellow-travellers. She was now truly 
roused, and even alarmed ; the mysterious sententiousness 
of her husband suggesting to her that he had taken under 
his protection some of the proscribed fugitives who were 
then known to be skulking in the country. 

As she was putting on her clothes, she sent her daughter 
down stairs for her keys, which she remembered to have 
left in the hall. The girl, however, came back immediately, 



304 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

declaring', with marks of the greatest alarm, that she could 
not go into the hall for fear of the tall woman, who was 
walking" backwards and forwards through it in a manner, 
she said, perfectly frightful. Lady Kingsburgh then went 
down herself, but could not help hesitating, when she came 
to the door, at sight of this mysterious stranger. Kings- 
burgh coming up, she desired him to go in for the keys ; 
but he bade her go in herself; and, after some further 
demur, in at last she went. 

On her entering, Charles rose up from a seat which he 
had taken at the end of the hall and advanced to salute 
her. Her apprehensions were now confirmed beyond a 
doubt ; for, in performing the ceremony of the salute, she 
felt the roughness of a male cheek, and such were her feel- 
ings at the discovery, that she almost fainted away. Not 
a word passed between her and the unfortunate stranger. 
When she got out of the hall, she eagerly made up to 
Kingsburgh, and disclosed to him all her suspicions. She 
did not upbraid her husband for having been so imprudent, 
but, on the contrary, asked if he thought the stranger would 
know anything regarding the Prince. Kingsburgh then 
took his wife's hands into his own and said seriously, c My 
dear, this is the Prince himself.' She could not restrain 
her alarm when he pronounced these emphatic words, but 
exclaimed, i The Prince ! then we'll be all hanged ! ' Kings- 
burgh replied, i We can die but once — could we ever die in 
a better cause 1 We are only doing an act of humanity, 
which anybody might do. Go,' he added, l and make haste 
with supper. Bring us eggs, butter, cheese, and whatever 
else you can quickly make ready.' i Eggs, butter, and 
cheese ! ' repeated Mrs Macdonald, alarmed upon a new but 
scarcely less interesting score— the honour of her house- 
wifeship ; ' what a supper is that for a prince — he'll never 
look at it ! ' ' Ah, my good wife/ replied Kingsburgh, 
1 you little know how this poor Prince has fared of late ! 
Our supper will be a treat to him. Besides, to make a 
formal supper would cause the servants to suspect some- 
thing. Make haste, and come to supper yourself.' Lady 
Kingsburgh was almost as much alarmed at her husband's 
last expression as she had been about her provisions* ' Me 
come to supper ! ' she exclaimed ; ' I know not how to be- 
have before majesty ! ' < But you must come,' Kingsburgh 
replied ; c the Prince would not eat a bit without you ; and 
you'll find it no difficult matter to behave before him — he 
is so easy and obliging in conversation.' 

Supper being accordingly soon after prepared, and Miss 



CHARLESES WANDERINGS — SKYE. 305 

Flora Macdonald introduced, Charles, who had always paid 
the most respectful attentions to his preserver, placed her 
upon his right hand, and Lady Kingsburgh on his left. 
He ate very heartily, and afterwards drank a bumper of 
brandy to the health and prosperity of his landlord. When 
his repast was finished, and the ladies had retired, he took 
out a little black stunted tobacco-pipe which he carried 
with him, and which, among" his companions, went by 
the name of ' the cutty? and proceeded to take a smoke, 
informing 1 Kingsburgh that he had been obliged to have 
recourse to that exercise during his wanderings on account 
of a toothache which occasionally afflicted him. Kings- 
burgh then produced a small china punch-bowl, and, in 
Scottish fashion, made up, with usquebaugh, hot water, 
and sugar, the celebrated composition called toddy, dealing 
it out to Charles and himself in glasses. The Prince was 
pleased to express himself greatly delighted with this bever- 
age, and soon, with Kingsburgh's assistance, emptied the 
little bowl, after which it was again filled. The two friends, 
unequal in rank, but united in common feelings, talked 
over their glasses in a style so familiar, so kindly, and so 
much to the satisfaction of each other, that they did not 
observe the lapse of time, and it was an hour not the earliest 
in the morning ere either thought of retiring. It might have 
been expected that Charles, from fatigue, and from a wish 
to enjoy once more the comforts of a good bed, to which he 
had been so long a stranger, would have been the first to 
propose this measure. On the contrary, Kingsburgh had 
to perform the disagreeable duty of breaking up the com- 
pany. After they had emptied the bowl several times, and 
when he himself was become anxious for repose, he thought 
it necessary to hint to the Prince that, as he would require 
to be up and away as soon as possible on the morrow, he 
had better now go to bed, in order that he might enjoy 
a proper term of sleep. To his surprise, Charles was by 
no means anxious for rest. On the contrary, he insisted 
upon i another bowl,' that they might, as he said, finish 
their conversation. Kingsburgh violated his feelings as a 
host so far as to refuse this request, urging that it was abso- 
lutely necessary that his Royal Highness should retire, for 
the reason he had stated. Charles as eagerly pressed the 
necessity of more drink ; and, after some good-humoured 
altercation, when Kingsburgh took away the bowl to put 
it by, his Royal Highness rose to detain it, and a struggle 
ensued, in which the little vessel broke into two pieces, 
Charles retaining one in his hands, and Kingsburgh hold- 

VOL. V. T 



306 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

ing the other. 1 The strife was thus brought to an end, and 
the Prince no long-er objected to go to bed. 

After having retired from the supper-table, Lady Kings- 
burgh desired Miss Flora to relate the adventures in which 
she had been concerned with his Royal Highness. At the 
termination of the recital, the hostess inquired what had been 
done with the boatmen who brought them to Skye. Miss 
Macdonald said they had been sent back to South Uist. Lady 
Kingsburgh observed that they ought not to have been 
permitted to return immediately, lest, falling into the hands 
of the Prince's enemies in that island, they might divulge 
the secret of his route. Her conjecture, which turned out 
to have been correct, though happily without being attended 
with evil consequences to the Prince, determined Flora to 
change the Prince's clothes next day. 

So much did Charles enjoy the novel pleasure of a good 
bed, that though he seldom, during his distresses, slept above 
four hours, he on this occasion slept about ten, not awaking 
till roused, at one o'clock next day, by his kind landlord. 
Kingsburgh inquiring, like a good host, how he had re- 
posed, the Prince answered that he had never enjoyed a 
more agreeable or a longer sleep in his life. He had 
almost forgot, he said, what a good bed was. Kings- 
burgh begged leave to tell his guest that it was full time 
to think of another march. It would be proper, he conti- 
nued, for him to go away in the same dress which he wore 
when he entered the house, in order to avoid raising sus- 
picions among the servants ; but as the rumour of his dis- 
guise might have taken air, it would be advisable to assume 
another garb at the earliest opportunity. The only refor- 
mation he thought it would be allowable to make in his 
habiliments at present, was a change of shoes those which 
the Prince had brought with him being worn so much that 
his toes protruded through them. Kingsburgh happened 
to have a pair in the house which he had never worn, and 
those he provided for the accommodation of his Royal High- 
ness. When Charles had shifted the old for the new, Kings- 
burgh took up the former, tied them together, and hung 
them up in a corner of his house, observing that they might 
yet stand him in good stead. Charles asked him what he 
meant by that, and the old man replied, ' Why, when you 
are fairly settled at St James's, I shall introduce myself by 
shaking these shoes at you, to put you in mind of your 

1 This howl, and the tumhler which Kingshurgh took from Mugstat, that 
the Prince might drink his wine from it, were, in 1827, in the possession of 
Colonel Macalister of Barr and Cour. 



Charles's wanderings — skye. 307 

night's entertainment and protection under my roof.' Charles 
smiled at the conceit of the good old gentleman, and bade 
him be as good as his word. Kingsburgh accordingly kept 
these strange relics, or the greater portion of them, as long 
as he lived. After his death, and when all prospect of 
Charles's restoration to St James's was gone, his family 
permitted the remainder to be cut to pieces, and dispersed 
among their friends. It is the recollection of one of his 
descendants that Jacobite ladies often took away the pieces 
they got in their bosoms. 1 

When Charles was to dress, Mrs Macdonald caused her 
daughter to act as his handmaid, for, as she afterwards told 
Bishop Forbes, l the deil a preen he could put in.' While 
Miss Macdonald 2 was dressing him, he was like to fall over 
with laughing. After the pinners, gown, hood, and mantle 
were put on, he said, i Oh, Miss, you have forgot my apron. 
Where is my apron ? Get me my apron here, for it is a 
principal part of my dress.' Kingsburgh and his lady in- 
formed their friends afterwards that at this time he behaved 
not like one that was in danger, but as mirthfully as if he 
had been putting' on women's clothes merely for a frolic. 
Lady Kingsburgh having asked a lock of his hair, to pre- 
serve as a keepsake, he laid down his head upon Flora's 
lap, and told her to cut off as much as she chose. Flora 
severed a lock, the half of which she gave to Lady Kings- 
burgh, and the other half retained for herself. 

In the evening, after having taken another hearty meal, 
Charles addressed himself to his departure. He had ob- 
served that Mrs Macdonald, like most ladies of birth and 
fashion of her time, took snuff; and on approaching her to 
take his leave, he asked to have l a pinch from her mull.' 
The good lady took that opportunity of presenting the box 
to his Royal Highness as ' a keepsake.' He accepted it 
with many thanks, rendering at the same time his warmest 
acknowledgments of the kindness with which he had been 
treated under her roof. After he had taken a tender fare- 

1 Within the second board of the 5th volume of Bishop Forbes's collection 
of papers entitled ' The Lyon in Mourning,' now in my possession, are two 
small pieces of leather, carefully sealed down, with the following note : — 
' The above are pieces of one of the lugs of those identical brogs which the 
Prince wore, when disguised in the female dress, under the name of Betty 
Burke, as handmaid to Miss Flora Macdonald.' It appears, from the con- 
tents of the volume, that Mr Forbes had written to Kingsburgh requesting 
these fragments, and received them, along with a letter from that gentleman, 
dated July 15, 1748. 

2 This lady afterwards became Mrs Macalister, and was, I presume, mother 
of Colonel Macalister, who in 1827 obligingly wrote for me the manuscript 
which has been quoted. 



308 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6, 

well, she went up stairs to his bedroom, and folded the sheets 
in which he had lain, declaring* that they should never 
again be washed or used till her death, when they should 
be employed as her winding-sheet. She was afterwards 
induced to divide this valuable memorial of her distinguished 
guest with the amiable Flora, who, it may be mentioned, 
many years afterwards carried her moiety of it to Ame- 
rica. In the course of her strangely adventurous life, and 
though often reduced to situations of the greatest distress 
by the republican insurgents, she never parted with it till 
the day of her death, when her body was wrapped in its 
precious folds, and consigned with it to the grave. 

Charles now set out from Kingsburgh, with the intention 
of walking to Portree, about fourteen miles distant, where 
he had the cheerful prospect of finding a boat ready to con- 
vey him to Eaasay. He was attended by his faithful friends 
Flora and Kingsburgh, the last carrying under his arm a 
suit of male Highland attire for his Royal Highnesses use. 
When they had got to a considerable distance from the 
house, Kingsburgh conducted the Prince into a wood, and 
assisted him in changing his clothes. The suit which he 
now put on consisted, as usual, of a short coat and waist- 
coat, a philabeg and short hose, a plaid, a wig, and a bonnet. 
Kingsburgh and the Prince then took a parting embrace, 
in doing which tears fell from the eyes of both, and a few 
drops of blood from the Prince's nose. The former being 
alarmed at sight of the blood, the Prince told him that it 
was usually so with him when he parted from dear friends. 
He then set out with Mackechan 1 on his journey, a little 

1 At a meeting of Mr and Mrs Macdonald of Kingsburgh, and some other 
persons, in Lady Bruce's house, citadel of Leith, July 11, 1747, the conversa- 
tion turned on a small work descriptive of the Prince's wanderings, entitled 
' Alexis, or the Young Adventurer; a Novel.' (London, T. Cooper, 1746.) In 
the report of the conversation, which has been preserved by Bishop Forbes, 
one of the persons present, the following passage occurs with respect to that 
pamphlet : as relating to the father of a historical personage of no small note, 
it seems worthy of being preserved. 

' It was represented to Kingsburgh that his lady, during his confinement, 
had been telling some folks that, upon conversing with him (her husband) 
about the pamphlet Alexis, he should have said that he knew nobody who 
could be the author of it but Neil Mackechan, so pointed and exact it was in 
giving the narrative. Kingsburgh, looking to his lady, said, " Goodwife, you 
may remember I said that I knew nobody who could be the author of that 
pamphlet but Neil Mackechan or myself." ' 

When it was suggested that Neil Mackechan (a low man) could not be 
thought capable of drawing up anything of that sort, Kingsburgh and his 
lady informed the company that Mackechan had been educated in the Scots 
College in Paris, with the view of commencing clergyman ; but that, after 
getting his education, he had dropt the design ; that therefore he was capable 
enough, and that he had proved a great comfort to the Prince in his wander- 
ings, by talking to him in the French language about matters of importance 



Charles's wanderings — skye. 309 

herd-boy acting* as their guide, and Miss Flora proceeding* 
to the same place by a different way. Kingsburgh hid the 
cast-off garments of Betty Burke in a bush, where they 
lay for some time ; but at length, from fear of the military, 
he carried them home, and burnt the whole except the 
gown. The preservation of the gown was owing to his 
daughter, who insisted upon keeping it as a relic of their 
Prince, and because it was a pretty print. A Jacobite manu- 
facturer of the name of Carmichael, at Leith, afterwards 
used it as a pattern, and sold an immense quantity of cloth, 
precisely similar in appearance, to the ' loyal' ladies of 
Scotland. 1 

When Donald Roy made application to young Raasay, 
he was mortified by the information that old Raasay had 
left his hiding-place upon the island, and gone to Knoy- 
dart, a part of Glengarry's estate upon the mainland. The 
young gentleman, however, though he had been reserved 
from the insurrection for the purpose of saving the estate, 
was as well-affected to the chevalier as either his father or 
his younger brothers, who led out the clan, and instantly 
proposed to conduct the Wanderer to Raasay, where he 
could at least remain concealed till the old gentleman's 
advice might be obtained for farther procedure. Donald 
approved of the plan ; but the difficulty was how to get a 
boat. They could not trust a Portree crew, and all the 
Raasay boats had been destroyed or carried off by the 
military, except two, belonging to Malcolm Macleod, a 
cousin of young Raasay, which he had somewhere con- 
cealed. 

There was at that time in the same house with young 
Raasay a younger brother, named Murdoch Macleod, who 
had been wounded at the battle of Culloden, and was now 
slowly recovering. Murdoch, being informed of the busi- 

in their difficulties, when perhaps it was not so prudent or convenient that 
those who were present should know what they were conversing about. They 
told likewise that they had never been so much afraid of any person's con- 
duct as that of Mackechan ; because he was a good-natured man, and very 
timorous in his temper. But they frankly owned they had done him great in- 
justice, by entertaining any suspicions about him, for that he had behaved 
to admiration, and had got abroad with the Prince, the great wish of his soul, 
for he could never think of parting with him at any time, but upon condition 
of meeting again, which Mackechan was so lucky as frequently to accomplish, 
even when at parting they could scarce condescend upon a time or place when 
and where to meet. 

1 Bishop Forbes has also preserved a fragment of the ' identical gown,' 
which, he says, was sent to him by Mrs Macdonald of Kingsburgh. Beneath 
it he has fastened a piece of the apron-string, which he says he got from Miss 
Flora Macdonald, November 5, 1747, ' when I saw the apron, and had it 
about me.' The two fragments do not seem in the least to have suffered from 
time. 



310 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

ness in hand, said he would once more risk his life for 
Prince Charles ; and it having* occurred that there was a 
little boat upon a fresh-water lake in the neighbourhood, 
he, with his brother and some women, brought it to the 
sea, by extraordinary exertion, across a Highland mile of 
land, one-half of which was bog, and the other a steep 
precipice. The gallant brothers, with the assistance of a 
little boy, rowed this to Raasay, where they hoped to find 
Malcolm Macleod, and get one of his good boats, with 
which they might return to Portree and receive the 
Wanderer; or, in case of not finding him, they were to 
make the small boat serve, though the danger was con- 
siderable. 

Malcolm Macleod, who was soon to act a conspicuous 
part in the deliverance of the Prince, had been a captain in 
his service, and fought at the battle of Culloden. Being 
easily found by his cousins, he lost no time in producing 
one of his boats, which he succeeded in manning with two 
stout boatmen, named John Mackenzie and Donald Mac- 
friar, who had also been in the Prince's army. Malcolm, 
being the oldest and most cautious man of the party, sug- 
gested that, as young Raasay was hitherto a clear man, he 
should not on the present occasion run any risk ; but that 
he himself and Murdoch, who were already 'as black as 
they could be/ should alone conduct the expedition. Young" 
Raasay answered, with an oath, that he would go, < though 
it should cost him the estate and the head.' 'In God's 
name, then/ said Malcolm, e let us proceed ! ' The two boat- 
men, however, now stopped short, and refused to move, till 
they should be informed of their destination. They were 
sworn to secrecy, and made acquainted with not only the 
extent of their voyage, but also its object ; after which, they 
expressed the utmost eagerness to proceed. 

The boat soon crossed the narrow sound which divides 
Raasay from Skye, and being landed about half a mile 
from the harbour of Portree, Malcolm and Macfriar were 
despatched to look for Prince Charles, while young Raasay 
and Murdoch remained on the shore. 

Donald Roy and Malcolm Macleod now met at a little 
public-house, the only one in the village, and soon after 
Miss Flora joined them, and gave information of the ap- 
proach of the Prince and his two attendants. Immediately 
thereafter, the boy who had attended Charles as his guide 
came to the door, and asking for Donald Roy, informed 
him that a gentleman wished to see him at a little distance. 
He went in the direction indicated, and found the Prince, 



Charles's wanderings — skye. 311 

who embraced him kindly, putting his head first over one 
shoulder and then over the other, and desiring* him to be 
equally unceremonious, for, night though it was, there 
might still be sufficient light to enable any lurking by- 
stander to observe their motions, and who could not, of 
course, fail to suspect the real state of the case if he saw 
one gentleman treating another with the etiquette due to 
a prince. It had been a rainy evening, and Charles was 
thoroughly wet. On Donald expressing his regret for this 
circumstance, the Prince said, ' I am more sorry that our 
lady (for so he used to name Miss Macdonald) should be 
exposed to such an evening. 7 They now went into the inn, 
Donald going first ; but no ceremony- seems to have passed 
on meeting Miss Macdonald and Malcolm Macleod. The 
Prince called for a dram in the first place, of which he 
seemed in much need, as the rain was streaming down 
from his plaid, and he had no trews or philabeg. 1 The 
company joined in urging him to shift and put on a dry 
shirt, Donald Roy offering him his philabeg. He at first 
refused, from delicacy towards Miss Macdonald ; but he 
was at length prevailed on to disregard ceremony. When 
he had put on the fresh shirt, some food was brought in, 
and he fell to it as he was, his long walk having furnished 
him with a ravenous appetite. Donald Roy, notwithstand- 
ing the anxiety of the moment, fell a-laughing at the 
strange figure he now cut ; when, seeing the Prince look- 
ing at him, he said, 6 Sir, I believe that is the English 
fashion.' ' What fashion do you mean?' 'Why, they say 
the English, when they intend to eat very heartily, cast off 
their clothes. 7 * They are right/ said Charles, ' lest any- 
thing should incommode their hands when they are at 
work. 7 He now asked for a drink; but there being no 
fermented liquor in Skye except in gentlemen's houses, he 
was obliged to slake his thirst with water from a dirty- 
looking wooden and rough-edged vessel, which the landlord 
employed to bale his boat. Donald Roy took a draught 
from this unpleasant cup, and handed it to the Prince, with 
a whispered assurance that it was tolerably clean, and that 
prudence required him to drink from it without hesitation, 
lest he should raise suspicions among the people of the 
house. Charles then put it to his lips, and took a hearty 
draught, after which he put on his philabeg and other 
clothes. 

Donald Roy urged him to make haste to leave the house, 

1 Such is Donald Roy's statement, though another narrator describes the 
Prince as getting a full Highland suit from Kingsburgh. 



312 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

as, there being* but one room for all comers, he ran a con- 
siderable risk of being" detected. Though anxious to stay 
all night, on account of the rain, he now prepared to set 
out for the boat, but first made an endeavour to prevail on 
Donald to accompany him, for he said he had experienced 
so much fidelity and kindness from the Macdonalds, that 
he thought he should feel himself safe if he still had one of 
that clan with him. Donald excused himself, on account 
of his wound, which forbade his travelling' except on horse- 
back, and also because, by remaining in Skye, he might be 
of greater service to him than by accompanying 1 him. It 
was agreed, however, that young Raasay should return in 
the boat on the ensuing Thursday, and, meeting Donald 
at a particular place which they appointed, carry him over 
to join the Prince in Raasay. Charles now called for some 
tobacco, that he might smoke a pipe before departing, and 
the landlord brought a quarter of a pound of a very coarse 
kind in the scales, for which Charles gave him sixpence. 
Donald Roy desired the man to bring the change. The 
Prince smiled at his exactness, and was for refusing the 
three - halfpence ; but Donald insisted on his taking this 
little sum, as * the bawbees/ he said, c might in his present 
situation be useful to him. 7 Donald then showed him a 
separate pocket in his sporran, or Highland purse, into 
which he slipped them. 

The little party had drunk a whole bottle of whisky. In 

aying the reckoning, the Prince got change for a guinea. 

le then desired to have change for another guinea; but 
the landlord had only eleven shillings more. Charles was 
for taking this sum in lieu of his guinea, as likely to be 
more useful to him than the piece of gold ; but Donald Roy 
prevented him, on the plea that such an appearance of in- 
difference to money was calculated to raise suspicion of his 
quality. He now took farewell of Miss Flora Macdonald 
and Mackechan. Approaching the young lady, he said, 
1 1 believe, madam, I owe you a crown of borrowed money. 7 
She told him it was but half a crown ; which he accordingly 
paid her, with thanks. He then saluted her, saying-, ' For 
all that has happened, I hope, madam, we shall meet in St 
James 7 s yet. 7 Before leaving the house, he tied a bottle of 
whisky to his belt at one side, and a bottle of brandy, with 
some shirts (which had been brought from Kingsburgh), 
and a cold fowl in a napkin, at the other. As the party 
were leaving the door, they observed the landlord looking 
after them : to deceive him, they took a different way from 
that intended, and approached the boat by a circuitous 



I 



CHAKLES'S WANDERINGS— SKYE. 313 

route. When Donald afterwards returned to the house to 
take some rest, this man, whose name was Charles Macnab, 
was very inquisitive about the stranger, who he was, and 
where he had parted with him. Donald said, with affected 
indifference, that he was only a brother rebel, a Sir John 
Macdonald, an Irishman, who had been skulking among 
his friends in Skye, but was now gone for the continent. 
Macnab said he had entertained a strong notion that the 
gentleman might happen to be the Prince in disguise, 
'for he had something about him that looked very 
noble.' 1 Donald afterwards went to Kingsburgh, to tell 
the good people there of the Prince's safe departure, 
and next to Mugstat, to give the like information to 
Lady Margaret Macdonald. At the latter place, he met 
and spent a pleasant evening with Lieutenant Macleod, 
the gentleman whom Miss Flora had amused to such good 
purpose. 2 

1 Donald Roy's Narrative. 

2 * About six or eight days after the Prince left Skye, Captain Ferguson 
followed him in hot pursuit ; and having extorted from the boatmen at, or in 
their return to South Uist, an exact description of the gown and dress the 
Prince had wore, he first went to Sir Alexander Macdonald's, where, after a 
strict search, hearing only of Miss Flora Macdonald, he thence proceeded 
in all haste to Kingsburgh, where he examined every person with the 
utmost exactness. He asked Kingsburgh where Miss Macdonald, and the 
person who was with her in woman's clothes, had lain ? Kingsburgh an- 
swered, he knew where Miss Flora had lain ; but as for servants, he never 
asked any questions about them. The captain then asked Lady Kingsburgh 
whether she had laid the young Pretender and Miss Flora in one bed ? To 
which she answered, "Whom you mean by the young Pretender I do not 
pretend to guess ; but I can assure you it is not the fashion in Skye to lay 
mistress and maid in one bed." Upon visiting the rooms wherein each had 
lain, the captain could not but remark that the room the supposed maid 
had possessed was better than that of the mistress. 

' Kingsburgh was made a prisoner, and by General Campbell's order he 
went on parole, without any guard, to Fort Augustus, where he was plundered 
of everything, thrown into a dungeon, and loaded with irons. When Sir 
Everard Fawkener examined him, he put him in mind how noble an oppor- 
tunity he had lost of making himself and his family for ever. To which 
Kingsburgh replied, " Had I gold and silver piled heaps upon heaps to the 
bulk of yon huge mountain, that mass could not afford me half the satisfac- 
tion I find in my own breast from doing what I have done." While Kings- 
burgh was prisoner at Fort Augustus, an officer of distinction came and asked 
him if he would know the young Pretender's head if he saw it ? Kingsburgh 
said he would know the head very well if it were on the shoulders. " But 
what if the head be not on the shoulders— do you think you should know it 
in that case?" " In that case," answered Kingsburgh, " I will not pretend 
to know anything about it." So no head was brought him. 

' Kingsburgh was removed hence to Edinburgh castle, under a strong 
guard of Kingston's light horse. He was at first put into a room with some 
other gentlemen, and afterwards removed into one by himself, without being 
allowed to go over the threshold, or to see any person, except the officer upon 
guard, the sergeant, and the keeper ; which last was appointed to attend him 
as a servant. And here he was kept till, by the act of grace, he was set at 
liberty on the 4th of July 1747 ; having thus, as an author observes, got a 



314 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

When the Prince entered the boat, and the names of 
all the individuals composing* the crew, including young" 

whole year's safe lodging for affording that of one night.'— Scots Magazine, 
1749. 

Alexander Macdonald, Esq. of Kingshurgh, died February 13, 1772, aged 
eighty-three. 

In the diary of Sir James Mackintosh (see his Memoirs by his son), is an 
interesting anecdote of Kingsburgh, which one might wish to be true, if it is 
not. * The excellent President Forbes represented to the Duke of Cumber- 
land, that to execute so popular a man as Kingsburgh would excite a new 
rebellion. But he was so deeply involved in the escape of Charles, that his 
destruction seemed to be certain. At Fort Augustus, while he was a pri- 
soner, an order came to the officer on guard for the release of some prisoners. 
Amongst others, the officer called the name of Alexander Macdonald, asking 
Kingsburgh if that was not he. He answered, "That is my name; but I 

suspect there must be some mistake." The officer said, " D you! what 

mistake ? Is not your name Alexander Macdonald ? " Kingsburgh said it 
was, but repeated his warning twice or thrice. He at last went out and met 
a friend, who advised him instantly to go out and leave the fort. Kingsburgh 
said, " No, I must wait at the opposite alehouse till I see whether the officer 
gets into a scrape." He waited. In two hours an officer came with a body of 
soldiers, and made the subaltern on guard prisoner for having set at large so 
dangerous a rebel. Kingsburgh immediately ran across the street, and saying 
to the officer, " I told you there was a mistake," surrendered himself.' 

Miss Macdonald, having taken leave of the Prince, left Portree imme- 
diately, and proceeded to her mother's house of Armadale in the district of 
Sleat. She never told her mother, or any one else, what she had done. Eight 
or ten days after her arrival, she received a message from Donald Macdonald 
of Castleton, a neighbouring gentleman, requesting her to come to him, and 
stating that he sent the message at the instigation of an officer of an inde- 
pendent company, who proved to be Macleod of Talisker. Somewhat sus- 
picious of what might happen, she consulted her friends, who unanimously 
advised her not to go ; but ' go she would.' * On her way, she met her step- 
father returning home, and had not gone much farther, when she was seized 
by an officer and a party of soldiers, and hurried on board Captain Ferguson's 
vessel. General Campbell, who was on board, ordered that she should be 
well treated ; and finding her story had been blabbed by the boatmen, she 
confessed all to that officer. 

She was soon after transferred from the ship commanded by Ferguson to one 
commanded by Commodore Smith, a humane person, capable of appreciating 
her noble conduct. By the permission of General Campbell, she was now 
allowed to land at Armadale and take leave of her mother : her stepfather 
was by this time in hiding, from fear lest his concern in the Prince's escape 
should bring him into trouble. Flora, who had hitherto been without a 
change of clothes, here obtained all she required, and engaged as her atten- 
dant an honest good girl named Kate Macdowall, who could not speak a word 
of any language but Gaelic. She then returned on board the vessel, and was in 
time carried to the south. It chanced that she here had for one of her fellow- 
prisoners the worthy Captain O'Neal, who had engaged her to undertake the 
charge of the Prince — and who, by the way, had made her the offer on that 
occasion of his hand in marriage, as a protection to her good fame. When 
she first met him on board, she went playfully up, and slapping him gently 
on the cheek with the palm of her hand, said, ' To that black face do I owe 
all my misfortune ! ' O'Neal told her that, instead of being her misfortune, 
it was her highest honour, and that if she continued to act up to the character 
she had already shown, not pretending to repent of what she had done, or to 
be ashamed of it, it would yet redound greatly to her happiness. 

The vessel in which she was having put into Leith Road early in Septem- 



* The words of her own narrative, Jacobite Memoirs. 






Charles's wanderings — skye. 315 

Raasay, were announced to him, he would not permit the 
usual ceremonies of respect, but saluted them as his equals. 

ber, and remained there till November, many of the well-affected in Edin- 
burgh had an opportunity of paying her in person the homage due to her 
character. Amongst these was the Rev. Mr Forbes, the Episcopal minister 
of the port, whose pen was fortunately active on the occasion. I extract the 
following from his memoranda :— 

1 In the journal taken, &c. Miss Macdonald has omitted several things 
which she particularly mentioned to those who conversed with her when she 
was lying in the Road of Leith, on board the Eltham and the Bridge water 
ships-of-war. She told that when the Prince put on women's clothes, he pro- 
posed carrying a pistol under one of his petticoats, for making some small 
defence in case of an attack ; but Miss declared against it, alleging that if 
any persons should happen to search them, the pistol would only serve to 
make a discovery. . . . The Prince was obliged to content himself with 
only a short heavy cudgel, with which he designed to do his best to knock 
down any single person that should attack him. 

1 She used likewise to tell that, in their passage to the Isle of Skye, a heavy 
rain fell upon them, which, with former fatigues, distressed her much. To 
divert her, the Prince sang several pretty songs. She fell asleep, and to keep 
her so, the Prince still continued to sing. Happening to awake with some 
little bustle in the boat, she found the Prince leaning over her with his hands 
spread about her head. She asked what was the matter. The Prince told 
her that one of the rowers, being obliged to do somewhat about the sail, be- 
hoved to step over her body (the boat was so small) ; and lest he should have 
done her hurt, either by stumbling or trampling upon her in the dark, he 
had been doing his best to preserve his guardian from harm. When Miss 
Macdonald was telling this particular part of the adventure to some ladies 
that were paying their respects to her, some of them with rapture cried out, 
*' Oh, Miss ! what a happy creature are you, who had that dear Prince to lull 
you asleep, and to take such care of you with his hands spread about your 
head when you was sleeping ! You are surely the happiest woman in the 
world ! " "I could," says one of them [Miss Mary Clerk*], " wipe your shoes 
with pleasure, and think it my honour so to do, when I reflect that you had 
the honour to have the Prince for your handmaid. We all envy you greatly." 
Much about the same time, a lady of rank and dignity [Lady Mary Coch- 
rane!] being on board with Miss Macdonald, a brisk gale began to blow and 
make the sea rough, and not so easy for a small boat to row to Leith. The 
lady whispered to Miss Macdonald that she would with pleasure stay on 
board all night, that she might have it to say that she had the honour of lying 
in the same bed with that person who had been so happy as to be guardian 
to her Prince, Accordingly, they did sleep in one bed that night. Several 
ladies [My Lady Bruce, i: Lady Mary Cochrane, Mrs Rattray, § Mrs Cheap, 
Miss Peggie Forbes, Miss Susie Graham, Miss Magdalen Clerk, Miss Mary 
Clerk, Miss Rachie Houston, Miss Peggie Callander] made valuable presents 
to Miss Macdonald ; namely, gowns, shirts, head-suits, shoes, stockings, &c. 
&c. Commodore Smith made her a present when she was in Leith Road of 
a handsome suit of riding clothes, with plain mounting, and some fine linen 
for riding shirts, as also a gown to her woman Kate Macdowall, and some 
linen to be shifts for poor Kate, who [had] generously offered herself to Miss 
Macdonald, when she could get not one that would venture to go with 
her. * * 

' When Miss Macdonald was on board the Bridgewater in Leith Road, ac- 

* One of the daughters of Mr Hugh Clerk, merchant in Leith, a son of 
Robert Clerk of Listonshiels, a cadet of the Penicuik family. 

f Probably a daughter of Thomas, sixth Earl of Dundonald. 

£ Widow of Sir William Bruce of Kinross. In her house, in the citadel of 
Leith, Mr Forbes at this time lived. 

§ The wife of Mr Rattray, surgeon in Edinburgh, the same who had been 
for a short time a prisoner at Inverness. 



316 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

It was nearly daylight (July 1) when he left Portree. < As 
they were rowing along" in the boat, the Prince conversed 

counts had come that the Prince was taken prisoner, and one of the officers 
had Drought the news of this report on hoard. She got an opportunity of 
talking privately to some who were then visiting her, and said, with tears in 
her eyes, " Alas ! I am afraid that now all is in vain that I have done ! The 
Prince at last is in the hands of his enemies ! " Though at that time great 
fear was entertained about the truth of this account, yet those that were 
with Miss Macdonald endeavoured all they could to cheer her up, and to 
dissuade her from believing any such thing ; but still fears haunted her mind, 
till the matter was cleared up, and the contrary appeared. * * 

' One day, in the Road of Leith, a lady [Miss Rachie Houston] asking Miss 
if she had any books on board, she said she had only a prayer-book, but re- 
gretted much the want of a Bible, which that lady soon furnished her with 
in a present, in two pretty pocket volumes handsomely bound. That she 
might have some innocent and useful employment for her time, care was 
taken by a lady [Lady Bruce] to send her a thimble, needles, white thread of 
different sorts, &c. with some linen and cambric, cut and shaped according 
to the newest fashions. This piece of friendship Miss Flora admired as much 
as any instance of kindness and regard that had been shown her, because all 
the time she had been in custody she was quite idle, having no work to do, 
and thereby time passed very dully on. 

' While she was in the Road of Leith, she never was allowed to set her foot 
once on shore ; though in other respects the officers were extremely civil and 
complaisant to her, and took it exceedingly well when any persons came to 
visit her. Sometimes they were so obliging as to come ashore for good com- 
pany to attend her, and frequently declared that if they knew any person to 
come on board out of curiosity, and not out of respect for Miss Macdonald, 
that person should not have access to her. This genteel behaviour makes it 
to be presumed that their orders were so exceedingly strict, that they could 
not dare to bring her ashore. Commodore Smith, commander of the Eltham, 
behaved like a father to her, and tendered her many good advices as to her 
behaviour in her ticklish situation ; and Captain Knowler of the Bridge- 
water used her with the utmost decency and politeness. When company 
came to her, she was indulged the privilege, by both these humane and well- 
bred gentlemen, to call for anything on board, as if she had been at her own 
fireside ; and the servants of the cabin were obliged to give her all manner of 
attendance ; and she had the liberty to invite any of her friends to dine with 
her when she pleased. Her behaviour in company was so easy, modest, and 
well adjusted, that every visitant was much surprised; for she had never 
been out of the islands of South Uist and Skye till about a year before the 
Prince's arrival, that she had been in the family of Macdonald of Largoe, in 
Argyleshire, for the space of ten or eleven months. 

' Some that went on board to pay their respects to her used to take a dance 
in the cabin, and to press her much to share with them in the diversion ; but 
with all their importunity, they could not prevail with her to take a trip. 
She told them that at present her dancing days were done, and she would not 
readily entertain a thought of that diversion till she should be assured of her 
Prince's safety, and perhaps not till she should be blessed with the happiness 
of seeing him again. Although she was easy and cheerful, yet she had a 
certain mixture of gravity in all her behaviour, which became her situation 
exceedingly well, and set her off to great advantage. She is of a low stature, 
of a fair complexion, and well enough shaped. One would not discern by her 
conversation that she had spent all her former days in the Highlands ; for 
she talks English (or rather Scots) easily, and not at all through the Erse 
tone. She has a sweet voice, and sings well, and no lady, Edinburgh-bred, 
can acquit herself better at the tea-table than what she did when in Leith 
Road. Her wise conduct in one of the most perplexing scenes that can happen 
in life, her fortitude and good sense, are memorable instances of the strength 
of a female mind, even in those years that are tender and inexperienced.' 

The ship in which Miss Macdonald was confined left Leith Road on the 7th 



Charles's wanderings— skye. 317 

to and fro, and frequently said that friends who showed 
their friendship in distress were the real friends, and that 

of November, and carried her straightway to London, where she was kept in 
a not less honourable captivity in the house of a private family, till the pass- 
ing of the act of indemnity in July 1/47, when she was discharged without 
being asked a single question. Her story had by this time excited not less 
interest in the metropolis than it had done in Scotland. Being received after 
her liberation into the house of the dowager Lady Primrose of Dunnipace, 
she was there visited by crowds of the fashionable world, who paid her such 
homage as would have turned the heads of ninety-nine of a hundred women 
of any age, country, or condition. On her mind they produced no eifect but 
that of surprise : she had only, she thought, performed an act of common 
humanity, and she had never thought of it in any other light till she found 
the world making so much ado about it. Lord Mahon mentions, I do not 
know upon what authority, that a subscription to the amount of £1500 was 
raised for her in London. Mr Robert Cole of London possesses an original 
letter of hers, addressed to Innes and Clerk, merchants of that city, and 
dated at Kingsburgh April 23, 1751, in which she makes mention of £627 
lodged in their hands for her behoof by Lady Primrose, and that she under- 
stood that more would follow from the same quarter. 

Soon after returning to her own country, Flora was married (November 6, 
1750) to Mr Alexander Macdonald, younger of Kingsburgh, to whom she bore 
a large family of sons and daughters. When Dr Johnson and Mr Boswell 
visited Skye, they were entertained by Mr and Mrs Macdonald at Kings- 
burgh. Johnson, in his ' Journey to the Western Islands,' introduces her 
well-known maiden name, which he says is one ' that will be mentioned in 
history, and, if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour.' He 
adds, ' She is a woman of middle stature, soft features, gentle manners, and 
elegant presence.' Soon after this period, under the influence of the passion 
for emigration which was then raging in the Highlands, Kingsburgh. and his 
lady went to North Carolina, where they purchased and settled upon an 
estate. She bore with her across the Atlantic the sheet in which the Prince 
had lain, that it might serve as her shroud, wherever it should be her 
fate to lay down her bones. Mr Macdonald had scarcely been settled on his 
property, when the unfortunate contest between the colonists and the mother 
country involved him in trouble. Like most of his countrymen in America, 
he sided with the British government, and the consequence was, that he was 
imprisoned as a dangerous person. On being liberated, he took arms against 
the colonists, as captain in a regiment called the North Carolina Highlanders, 
and he and his wife met with many strange adventures in the course of the 
contest. At the conclusion of the Avar, they found it necessary to leave the 
country of their adoption, and return to Skye. In the voyage homeward, the 
vessel encountered a French ship of war, and an action ensued. While the 
other ladies were confined below, Flora insisted upon remaining on deck, 
where she endeavoured, by her voice and example, to animate the sailors. 
She was unfortunately thrown down in the bustle, and broke her arm ; which 
caused her afterwards to observe, in the spirit of poor Mercutio, that she 
had now perilled her life in behalf of both the house of Stuart and that of 
Brunswick, and got very little for her pains. 

She spent the remainder of her life in Skye, and at her death, which took 
place March 5, 1790, when she had attained the age of seventy, was actually 
buried in the shroud which she had so strangely selected for that purpose in 
her youth, and carried with her through so many adventures and migrations. 
She retained to the last that vivacity and vigour of character which has pro- 
cured her so much historical distinction. Her husband, who survived her a 
few years, died on the half-pay list as a British officer ; and no fewer than 
five of her sons served their king in a military capacity, Charles, the eldest 
son, was a captain in the Queen's Rangers. He was a most accomplished 
man : the late Lord Macdonald. on seeing him lowered into the grave, said, 
* There lies the most finished gentleman of my family and name.' Alexander, 
the second son, was also an officer : he was lost at sea. The third son, Ranald, 



318 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

he hoped his friends would not have reason to repent for 
the services done him, and that he would happily yet end 
what he had begun, or die in the attempt/ 1 He slept a 
little on the passage to Raasay, and, after a voyage of ten 
miles, they landed at a place called Glam. As almost all 
the houses in the island had been burnt by the soldiery, 
and as some were not eligible as places of concealment, it 
was not without difficulty that the Prince was accom- 
modated. A resolution was at length made that the whole 
company should lodge in a little hovel which some shep- 
herds had lately built, though it could aiFord them abso- 
lutely nothing but shelter from the open air. When they 
had settled here, young Eaasay went away, and in about 
two hours returned with a young kid, which they imme- 
diately proceeded to roast, and ate with butter, cream, and 
oaten bread, the Prince preferring the last to a wheaten 
loaf, and calling it his own country bread. c After their 
little repast was over, he began to inquire narrowly about 
the damages done in the island. Upon his being' told of 
all the houses burnt, and of the other great depredations 
in the island, to which the houses were but a trifle, he 
seemed much affected, but at the same time said that, in- 
stead of the huts burnt, he would yet build houses of stone. 
Afterwards, walking on a narrow green near the cottage, 
he said that this was a bitter hard life, but he would rather 
live ten years in that way than be taken by his enemies, 
and seemed a little surprised himself how he did bear such 
fatigues ; " for," says he, " since the battle of Culloden, I 
have endured more than would kill a hundred : sure Pro- 
vidence does not design this for nothing. Pm thus cer- 
tainly yet reserved for some good.' 7 Thus they passed the 
day, and after having taken some supper, he went to rest 
with as great pleasure, and in outward appearance as little 
concerned, as if in the greatest prosperity.' 2 

Though there were no parties of military upon Raasay, 

was a captain of marines, of high professional character, and remarkable for 
the elegance of his appearance. James, the fourth son, served in Tarlton's 
British Legion, and was a brave and experienced officer. Lieutenant- Colonel 
John Macdonald of Exeter, was the last survivor of these gallant soldiers. 
There were, moreover, two daughters, one of whom, Mrs Major Macleod of 
Lochbay, in the Isle of Skye, died within the last few years. Flora lies buried 
in a mausoleum of the Kingsburgh family in the churchyard of Kilmuir, 
without a stone to mark her grave. 

Donald Roy Macdonald, who had taken such an important interest in the 
Prince's progress through Skye, skulked in caves, where he was supplied 
with necessaries by Lady Margaret Macdonald, till the passing of the act of 
indemnity in 1747, when he was enabled to go at large. 

1 Narrative by Murdoch Macleod, Lyon in Mourning, MS. iv. 862. 

2 Murdoch Macleod's Narrative. 






Charles's wanderings — skye. 319 

and although all the inhabitants were well-affected, it was 
thought proper by Charles's attendants to use the utmost 
caution. Watches were established upon the tops of all 
the neighbouring heights, and no one of the party appeared 
in public except young Raasay, who was, as already men- 
tioned, a clear man. Donald Roy being stationed upon 
Skye, to give intelligence in case of any annoyance from 
that quarter, the Prince might have almost considered 
himself secure upon this wild and secluded island. Laying- 
aside the wretchedness of his lodging, he might also be 
esteemed as not in the worst possible predicament as to 
living. Young Raasay was in the midst of his own flocks, 
and had only to use insidious means to procure for his 
Royal Highness and the whole party plenty of fresh 
provisions. 

The Prince's bed of state here was one made, in the 
primitive Highland fashion, of heather, with the stalks 
upright, and the bloom uppermost. He enjoyed long, but 
not unbroken slumbers, often starting, and giving uncon- 
scious expression to the feelings and imagery of his dreams. 
Malcolm Macleod, who watched him on these occasions, in- 
formed Mr Roswell that his half-suppressed exclamations 
were sometimes in French, sometimes in Italian, and oc- 
casionally in English ; though the ingenious tourist could 
not help questioning Malcolm's ability to distinguish at 
least two of these tongues. One of his expressions in 
English was, * Oh God, poor Scotland ! ' his mind having 
probably been then engaged in lamenting the military 
tyranny by which, in consequence of his unfortunate enter- 
prise, a great part of the nation was so bitterly agonised. 

The only stranger, besides the Prince, then known to be 
upon the island of Raasay, and of course the only person 
from whom they apprehended particular danger, was a man 
who had come about a fortnight before for the ostensible pur- 
pose of selling a roll of tobacco. The tobacco had been long 
sold, and yet the man wandered about, apparently reluctant 
to quit the island. Nobody knew anything about him, and 
he was suspected to be a spy. One day John Mackenzie 
came running down from the place where he had been 
watching, with the alarming intelligence that this mys- 
terious individual was approaching the hut. The three 
gentlemen who attended the Prince — young Raasay, Mur- 
doch Macleod, and Malcolm — immediately held a council of 
war upon the subject, the result of which was, that the man 
should be put to death without ceremony. The mind of 
Charles shrunk with horror from the proposal, and assum- 



320 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

ing a grave and even severe countenance, he said, i God 
forbid that we should take away a man's life who may be 
innocent, while we can preserve our own.' The gentlemen, 
however, persisted in their resolution, while he as strenu- 
ously continued to take the merciful side. In the midst 
of the debate, John Mackenzie, the watchman, who sat at 
the door of the hut, said in Erse, i He must be shot : you 
are the king*, but we are the parliament, and will do what 
we choose.' Charles, seeing* his friends smile, asked what 
the man had said, which being reported to him in English, 
he observed that he was a clever fellow ; and, notwithstand- 
ing the perilous situation he was in, he could not help 
laughing. 1 Fortunately the unknown person walked past, 
without perceiving that there were people in the hut. Mal- 
colm Macleod afterwards declared that, had he stopped or 
come forward, they were resolved to despatch him ; that he 
would have done so himself, although the victim had been 
his own brother! Dougald Graham, indeed, reports that 
young Raasay had his pistol ready cocked for the purpose. 
After a residence of two days and a half upon the island 
of Raasay, Charles expressed a strong wish to leave it, 
alleging that it was too narrow to afford good room for 
skulking, and also professing an anxiety to meet with 
Donald Roy Macdonald in Skye. His attendants com- 
bated his wishes, but he insisted on the point so earnestly, 
that they at last gave way. The whole party accordingly 
set sail, on the evening of the 3d of July, in the same open 
boat which had brought them over to Raasay. Before they 
had proceeded far, the wind began to blow hard, and to drive 
so much sea-water into their vessel, that they begged to return 
and wait a more favourable opportunity. But the Prince 
insisted upon proceeding, in spite of every danger, exclaim- 
ing that Providence had not brought him through so many 
perilous chances to end his life in this simple manner at 
last. To encourage them, he sang a lively Erse song, 
although very little acquainted with that language. They 
continued their voyage, notwithstanding that the water 
came into the boat in such quantities, as to require the 
utmost exertions of Malcolm to keep it from sinking. 
1 Gentlemen/ he said, c I hope to thank you for this trouble 
yet at St James's.' After a rough voyage of about fifteen 
miles, they landed safe, about eleven o'clock at night, at a 

1 Mr Boswell, by conversing with this man, discovered that, in reality, he 
had no intention of amusing Prince Charles by an allusion to the power which 
the British parliament had exercised over the fortunes of his family, but 
spoke only from the simple idea that many voices were better than one. — See 
BosweU's Tour, 2d edition, p. 228. 



Charles's wanderings — skye. 321 

place called Nicholson's Great Rock, near Scorobreck in 
Troternish, the northern limb or peninsula of the Isle of 
Skye. There being* no convenient landing-place, the party 
had to jump out into the surf, and haul the boat ashore. 
Charles, who was already drenched to the skin, and in- 
cumbered with a large greatcoat, was the third man to 
fling himself into the sea for this purpose. After landing^ 
he eagerly assisted in hauling the boat ashore. 

The only lodging which the party could find to solace 
them for all the fatigues and discomforts of their voyage, 
was a lonely cow-house belonging to Mr Nicholson of Scoro- 
breck, a mansion about two miles distant. Lest there might 
be some people in this hovel, young Raasay went forward 
to inspect it, while the rest walked slowly behind. ' What 
must become of your Royal Highness/ said Murdoch, i if 
there be people in the house, for certainly you must perish, 
if long exposed to such weather?' ' I care nothing for it/ 
replied the Prince, ' for I have been abroad in a hundred 
such nights.' Young Raasay having come back reporting 
that the byre was empty, they entered, kindled a fire, and 
lying down around it, partook of some bread and cheese, 
their only provisions. At an early hour in the morning 
young Raasay went away to meet Donald Roy, according 
to the appointment which had been made with him. The 
Prince, who had stretched himself beside the fire, slept till 
noon, when he rose and went out with Murdoch to a little 
hill near by, where Malcolm Macleod and the two boatmen 
had been standing sentry. He ordered them to go in and 
take some sleep, of which, he said, they had much need, 
and he himself should meanwhile keep watch. He here ex- 
pressed to Murdoch great anxiety for the return of his elder 
brother, saying he would wait for him till eight o'clock, but 
no longer. He then asked Murdoch if he could travel well, 
to which the youth replied in the negative, his wound being 
still unhealed. The Prince then asked if he knew his cousin 
Malcolm well, and if he was a discreet man, who might te 
safely trusted. Murdoch gave a strong testimony to both 
the discretion and fidelity of Malcolm ; which seems to have 
determined the Prince as to his next movements, He told 
Murdoch that he expected to get a boat on the other side of 
Skye to carry him to the island of Rum. In case this 
expectation should not be fulfilled, he wished Murdoch to be 
within two days at a particular point a few miles off with 
his own six-oared boat, which he understood to be an excel- 
lent sailer, in order to take him off if necessary. Lest, how- 
ever, it should be judged unsafe for him to sail in that boat 

VOL. V. U 



322 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

through the strait between Skye and the mainland, on ac- 
count of the guards there posted, he wished Donald Roy to 
go to Sleat and have another boat ready for him in that 
district. ' All this/ said he to Murdoch, c you must endea- 
vour to manage aright, for it is a matter of the utmost con- 
sequence. It will be a piece of great friendship, which I 
shall never forget.' He also expressed a strong wish that 
the concern of young Raasay in aiding his concealment 
should be kept a profound secret, adding that he, for one, 
would never say a word about it. 1 

The Prince now returned with Murdoch to the byre, 
designing to wait there till eight o'clock ; but the sight of 
a stranger at a distance determined him to set out sooner. 
After presenting Murdoch with his silver spoon, knife, and 
fork, and desiring him to keep them till he saw him again, he 
left the hovel, with Malcolm Macleod alone in his company. 
When they had walked about a mile, Malcolm made bold 
to ask his Royal Highness where he intended to go, ' Mal- 
colm/ answered the Prince impressively, ' I commit myself 
entirely to you ; carry me to Mackinnon's bounds in Skye ;' 
meaning that portion of the island which belonged to the 
chief of Mackinnon, the only one of the three great pro- 
prietors of Skye who had been concerned in his late enter- 
prise. Malcolm objected that such a journey would be 
dangerous, on account of the militia who patroled the 
island ; but Charles answered that there was nothing now 
to be done without danger. ' You, Malcolm/ he continued, 
' must now act the master, and I the man.' Accordingly, 
taking the bag which contained his linen, and strapping it 
over his shoulders, he desired his faithful companion to go 
in advance as a gentleman, while he trudged behind in the 
character of a servant. Malcolm acquiesced in the plan; 
and it was also agreed that the Prince should pass for one 
Lewie Caw, the son of a surgeon in Crieff, and lately in the 
Highland army in a medical capacity, but who was now 
known to be skulking in Skye amongst some relations. 
They set forward in this fashion towards Mackinnon's 
country, which was distant twenty-four Highland miles, 
and could only be reached from this point by traversing a 
very wild and mountainous tract. 2 

Malcolm, though himself an excellent pedestrian, as most 
of his countrymen were, used afterwards to own that, in 

1 Murdoch Macleod' s Narrative. 

2 A list of the things carried by Charles on this occasion has been preserved 
— ' two shirts, one pair of stockings, one pair of brogues, a bottle of brandy, 
some scraps of mouldy bread and cheese, a three-pint stone bottle for water.' 
— Lyon in Mourning, i. 141. 



Charles's wanderings— skye. 323 

this long* and painful journey, he found himself far excelled 
by Prince Charles, whose rapidity of motion was such, that 
it was with the greatest difficulty he could be restrained to 
his proper place in the rear. His Royal Highness informed 
Malcolm that, trusting* to his speed of foot, he felt little 
apprehension on the score of being* chased by a party of 
English soldiers, provided he g*ot out of musket-shot ; thoug*h 
he owned he was not just so confident of escaping* any of 
the Highland militia who might fall in with him. Malcolm 
asked him what they should do if surprised before getting 
to the proper distance. ' Fight, to be sure/ was the Prince's 
reply. < I think,' rejoined Malcolm, i if there were no more 
than four of them, I would engage to manage two.' ' And 
1/ added Charles, ' would engage to do for the other two.' 

In walking over the mountains, they kept as much as 
possible out of sight of houses ; but they occasionally met 
a few country people wandering about. On these occasions 
Charles took care to display the demeanour of a servant ; 
touching his bonnet when spoken to by his apparent master, 
and also when addressing him. As they went along, it 
occurred to the Prince that the waistcoat he wore, being a 
scarlet tartan with a gold twist button, was too fine for a 
servant, and he proposed to exchange it for that worn by 
Mr Macleod. While he was putting on his companion's 
vest, he said, 1 1 hope, Macleod, to give you a much better 
vest for this yet.' On approaching Mackinnon's country, 
in which many of the people, having been in the Highland 
army, might be presumed to know the Prince, it was 
thought proper still further to deepen his disguise. Taking 
off his periwig, and putting it into his pocket, he took out 
a dirty white napkin, and desired Malcolm to tie that about 
his head, bringing it down upon his eyes and nose. Over 
this he put his bonnet. He then tore the ruffles from his 
shirt, and took the buckles out of his shoes, putting strings 
in their place. He desired his friend to look at him, and 
say if he was yet sufficiently disguised. Macleod told him 
that he thought he might yet be recognised. Charles said, 
1 This is an odd, remarkable face I have got, that nothing 
can disguise it.' Macleod, however, did not think the risk 
of detection lay alone in the face. He used to say that 
Charles could dissemble everything but his air. i There is 
not a person,' said he, ' that knows what the air of a noble 
or great man is, but, upon seeing the Prince in any disguise 
he could put on, would see something about him that was 
not ordinary, something of the stately and grand.' 

In the course of their walk, Malcolm informed him of 



324 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the many barbarities committed by the Duke of Cumber- 
land after the battle of Culloden. The Prince was amazed, 
as he might well be, at the recital, and said he could scarcely 
believe what he heard. Macleod, in the narrative he after- 
wards communicated to the Rev. Mr Forbes, states some 
particulars respecting" the personal condition of the Prince 
at this time, which modern ears might dislike to hear. To 
put the matter into the most delicate form, the reader must 
be asked to imagine the worst feature of the squalor of a 
wayside beggar. i This serves/ says Malcolm, 6 to show 
that he was reduced to the very lowest ebb of misery and 
distress, and is a certain indication of that greatness 01 soul 
which could rise above all misfortunes, and bear up, with a 
cheerfulness not to be equalled in history, under all the 
scenes of wo that could happen. He used to say that the 
fatigues and distresses he underwent signified nothing at 
all, because he was only a single person ; but when he re- 
flected on the many brave fellows who suffered in his cause, 
that, he behoved to own, did strike him to the heart, and 
did sink very deep into him.' 1 

The principal support which the two pedestrians had 
during their long 1 walk was derived from a bottle of brandy 
carried by Malcolm, with the assistance of the wayside 
springs. This source of comfort became exhausted before 
the end of their journey, all except a single glass, which 
the Prince insisted that his companion should drink, pro- 
testing' that he could better endure to want it. When the 
bottle was fairly drained, Malcolm hid it in the ground, 
where he afterwards found and resumed possession of it in 
quieter times. 

After a journey of more than thirty English miles, they 
arrived in the morning at Ellagol, near Kilmaree, in the 
country of Mackinnon, where they happened to meet two of 
that clan who had been engaged in the insurrection. The 
men stared at the Prince for a little, and soon recognising' 
him, fairly lifted up their voices and w^ept. Malcolm im- 
mediately put them on their guard, lest such an expression 
of sympathy, though honourable to them, should discover 
their Prince to his enemies. He also swore them to secrecy 
upon his naked dirk, after the fashion of the Highlanders, 
and requested them to go away, without taking further 
notice of his Royal Highness. It is barely necessary to say 
that they kept their word. 

Being now near Mackinnon's house, Malcolm asked the 

1 Jacobite Memoirs, 476. 



Charles's wanderings — skye. 325 

Prince if he wished to see the laird. Charles answered 
that, with the highest respect for the worth and fidelity of 
old Mackinnon, he did not think him the person precisely 
fitted for his present purpose ; and he wished rather to be 
conducted to the house of some other gentleman. Malcolm 
then determined that the Prince should go to the house of 
his brother-in-law, Mr John Mackinnon, who had been a 
captain in the insurgent army. 

Leaving Charles at a little distance, till he should recon- 
noitre, Malcolm entered the house himself, and saw his 
sister, who informed him that her husband had gone out, 
but was expected back very soon. He intended, he said, 
to spend a day or two in her house, provided there were 
no soldiers in the neighbourhood. She assured him he 
would be perfectly safe. Then he informed her that he had 
brought a brother in distress along with him, one Lewie 
Caw, whom he had engaged, from pity, as his servant, 
and who had fallen sick during their journey. Mrs Mac- 
kinnon desired that Caw might be instantly brought in 
and entertained. 

Charles being immediately introduced, the lady of the 
house could not help saying, as he entered, ' Poor man ! I 
pity him. At the same time, my heart warms to a man of 
his appearance.' She provided the two with a plentiful 
meal, during which Charles sat at a respectful distance from 
the table, with his bonnet off, partaking only of the inferior 
articles. Malcolm, moved by the Prince's humility, re- 
quested him to draw near the table and eat along with 
him, as there was no company in the house. But Charles 
answered, he knew better what became a servant ; and it 
was only after an earnest intreaty, that, making a profound 
bow, he at length permitted himself to take advantage of 
the offer. When their meal was concluded, a serving girl 
came in with warm water, after the mode of ancient High- 
land hospitality, to wash Malcolm's feet. This was a cere- 
mony much needed in the present case by the Prince, for, 
in the course of the journey, he had fallen into a bog, and 
bemired himself up to the middle. When the woman had 
washed Mackinnon' s feet, he said, ' You see that poor sick 
man there ; I hope you will wash his feet too ; it will be a 
great charity, for he has as much need as I have.' i No 
such thing-/ said she in Gaelic, her only language ; ' although 
I wash the master's feet, I am not obliged to wash the ser- 
vant's. What ! he's but a low country woman's son ; I will 
not wash his feet indeed.' After some intreaties, he pre- 
vailed on her to wash the Prince's feet ; but she performed 



326 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

the office so roughly, that Charles had to intreat Macleod 
to intercede with her for somewhat gentler usage. 

The two travellers afterwards went to sleep, while Mrs 
Mackinnon took her station on the top of a neighbouring 
hill, to watch the approach of the least danger. Charles 
only slept two hours, but Malcolm, having suffered more 
from fatigue, continued in bed a good while longer. On 
rising, he was astonished to find his indefatigable companion 
dandling and singing to Mrs Mackinnon's infant, with an 
appearance of as much cheerfulness and alacrity as if he 
had endured neither danger nor fatigue. An old woman 
sat near him looking on. Malcolm could not help ex- 
pressing his surprise at so extraordinary a sight, when the 
Prince exclaimed with gaiety, and half- forgetting his 
assumed character, i Who knows but this little fellow may 
be a captain in my service yet?' 'Or you rather an old 
sergeant in his company/ said the old woman. 

Malcolm, now hearing that his brother-in-law was ap- 
proaching the house, went out to meet him, in order to 
sound his disposition in regard to Prince Charles. After 
the usual salutations, pointing to some ships of war which 
lay at a distance, he said, l What, Mackinnon, if the 
Prince be on board one of those 1 ' 6 God forbid ! ' was 
Mackinnon's devout answer. Malcolm, then assured that 
he might be trusted, asked, 6 What if he were here, John ? 
Do you think he would be safe ? ' i That he would,' answered 
Mackinnon ; i we should take care of him.' 6 Then, John/ 
said Malcolm, ' he is in your house.' Mackinnon, in a 
transport, was for running in immediately and paying his 
obeisance ; but Malcolm stopped him, till he should compose 
himself, and be tutored to preserve his Royal Highnesses 
incognito. When he was fairly instructed as to his beha- 
viour, Malcolm permitted him to enter ; but no sooner had 
the warm-hearted Highlander set his eyes upon the unfor- 
tunate Prince, than he burst into tears, and had to leave 
the room. 

During the course of the day, a consultation being held 
as to the best means of transporting Charles to the main- 
land, it was agreed that John Mackinnon should go to his 
chief and hire a boat for that purpose. He was enjoined to 
keep the secret from the old gentleman, and to pretend that 
the boat was intended for the use of his brother-in-law alone. 
He went accordingly ; but the force of clanship proved too 
much for his discretion, and he disclosed the fact of the 
Prince being in his house. The chief, delighted with the 
intelligence, at once got ready his own boat, and, with his 



Charles's wanderings — skye. 327 

lady, set out to pay his respects to the Wanderer. On John 
returning" to the house, and confessing what he had done, 
Charles felt somewhat uneasy, hut resolved to make the 
best of the circumstances. He went out and received the 
old chief, and the whole party then partook of an enter- 
tainment of cold meat and wine, which Lady Mackinnon 
laid out in a neighbouring* cave upon the shore. 

It was now determined that Charles should be conducted 
by the old laird and John Mackinnon to the mainland, 
while Malcolm should remain in Skye, lest he should be 
missed, and thus create suspicion, and also to interrupt or 
distract the pursuit which would probably be made after 
the Prince. It was about eight o'clock at night when the 
party repaired to the water's edge, where the boat was lying 
ready to sail. At that moment two English men-of-war 
hove in sight, apparently bearing towards them ; and Mal- 
colm, in high alarm, counselled the Prince to delay his 
voyage till next morning, more especially as the wind was 
favourable to the enemy, which it would not be to his boat. 
Charles, however, would not listen to his suggestions, urg- 
ing, with enthusiastic vehemence, the result of former good 
fortune, and that he felt confident the wind would change 
in his favour the moment that he required its good services. 
He then remembered the two contingent appointments he 
had made with Murdoch Macleod, for a meeting with that 
gentleman or with Donald Roy Macdonald, and bethought 
him of the duty under which he lay in civility to apprise 
them of the step he was now taking. Malcolm said it 
was no matter, and offered to make the apology himself. 
c That's not enough,' said the Prince : i have you paper, 
pen, and ink ? I'll write a few lines ; I'm obliged to do so 
in good manners.' Writing materials being presented, he 
penned a letter in something like the following terms : — 

6 Sir — I have parted (thank God) as intended. Eemember 
me to all friends, and thank them for the trouble they have 
been at. I am, Sir, your humble servant — James Thomson. 

Ellighuil, July 4, 1746.' 
To this letter he affixed no address : it is stated by Malcolm 
Macleod, in his Narrative, to have been designed by the 
Prince for Murdoch ; on the other hand, Donald Eoy 
affirms that it was meant for him, and that to him Malcolm 
sent it. 1 The dispute does not seem to be one of much 
consequence. 

1 There is an angry letter on this point by Donald in Bishop Forbes's collec- 
tion. He accuses Malcolm of lying and vainglory— I would hope without 
any just cause. 



328 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

The Prince next took out his purse, and desired Mal- 
colm's acceptance of ten guineas, along* with a silver stock- 
buckle* The generous Highlander refused to take the 
money, which he saw, from the slenderness of the Prince's 
purse, could ill be spared ; but Charles at length prevailed 
upon him to accept the gift, asserting that he would have 
need of it in the skulking life he was now leading-, and at 
the same time expressing a confidence that he would get 
his own exchequer supplied on reaching the mainland. 
c Malcolm/ he then said, ' let us smoke a pipe together 
before we part.' A light was instantly procured from the 
flint of Malcolm's musket, and the two fond, though un- 
equal companions, took a last parting smoke from the 
stumped pipe or cutty which Charles had hitherto used in 
his wanderings. Malcolm obtained, and for a long time 
preserved this fragment of pipe, which he afterwards was 
induced to present to Dr Burton of York, a devout Jacobite, 
who was at the pains to get a handsome case made in which 
to keep it. 

After a tender and long -protracted adieu, the Prince 
went into the boat, which, with the chief and Mr John 
Mackinnon, immediately put out to sea, under the manage- 
ment of a few stout rowers. The affectionate Malcolm sat 
down upon the side of a hill, partly to watch the proceed- 
ings of the two tenders, and partly that he might see his 
dearly beloved Prince as long as distance and eyesight 
would permit. He afterwards used to tell, with the true 
superstitious reverence of a stickler for the jus divinum, that, 
precisely as the Prince predicted, he had not gone far out 
to sea when the wind shifted in such a manner as to part 
him effectually from the inimical vessels. 

Malcolm returned home next day by the way of Kings- 
burgh, where he related the Prince's late adventures to a 
grateful and admiring audience. He had to inform Lady 
Kingsburgh of one circumstance, which must have given 
her unqualified pleasure. During his travels with the 
Prince, his Royal Highness had expressed a high sense of 
the value of her ladyship's present — the snuff-box already 
mentioned. He had asked the meaning of the device which 
adorned the lid — a pair of clasped hands, with the words 
c Rob Gib ' — which Malcolm explained as emblematic of sin- 
cere friendship, and as alluding to a circumstance in which 
an ancestor of the Prince was concerned. Rob Gib was the 
court fool of Scotland in the reign of James V. ; it was a 
saying of his that all the official courtiers served his majesty 
for selfish ends, except himself, who, for his part, had no 



Charles's wanderings— the mainland. 329 

other contract with the king than c stark love and kindness.' 
The Prince expressed himself an ardent admirer of the 
principle symbolised by the device, and declared he would 
endeavour to keep the box as long- as he lived. 

Malcolm being asked his opinion of the Prince, as one 
who had seen him in the extremes of both prosperous and 
adverse fortune, replied that 'he was the most cautious 
man he ever saw, not to be a coward ; and the bravest, not 
to be rash.' 

About ten days after he had parted with the Prince, 
Malcolm was apprehended, put aboard a ship, and conveyed 
to London, where he was kept in confinement the same 
space of time as Miss Flora Macdonald. On being dis- 
charged from jail, Miss Macdonald was provided with a 
postchaise, to convey her back to Scotland, by a Jacobite 
lady of quality resident in London ; and being desired to 
choose a person who might accompany her, she named her 
fellow-sufferer Malcolm. ( And so,' Malcolm used after- 
wards to observe triumphantly, i I went up to London to 
be hanged, and returned in a braw postchaise with Miss 
Flora Macdonald.' 1 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 

Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 

On hills that are by right his ain, 

He roams a lonely stranger ; 
On ilka hand he's pressed by want, 

On ilka side by danger. 
Yestreen I met him in a glen, 

My heart near bursted fairly, 
For sadly changed indeed was he — 

Oh, waes me for Prince Charlie ! 

Jacobite Song. 

That part of the mainland to which the Prince was now 
directing his course, might be considered as well qualified 

1 Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides ; where a vivid portraiture has been pre- 
served of this excellent specimen of the Highland gentleman, as he appeared 
in 1773. * He was now,' says Mr Boswell, ' sixty-two years of age, hale and 
well-proportioned, with a manly countenance, tanned by the weather, yet 
having a ruddiness in his cheeks, over a great part of which his rough beard 
extended. His eye was quick and lively, yet his look was not fierce ; but he 
appeared at once firm and good-humoured. He wore a pair of brogues— tartan 
hose which came up only near to his knees— a purple camblet kilt— a black 
waistcoat— a short green cloth coat, bound with gold cord— a yellowish bushy 
wig— a large blue bonnet, with a gold thread button. I never saw a figure 
which gave a more perfect representation of a Highland gentleman. I wished 
much to have a picture of him just as he was. I found him frank and polite, 
in the true sense of the word.' 



330 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

to afford him shelter, as far as the physical character of the 
country and the dispositions of its inhabitants were con- 
cerned. It was the same well-affected district which he 
had selected for his first landing, and in which he had 
reared the standard of his enterprise. Consisting" of ranges 
of rough mountains, alternating with long narrow arms of 
the sea and fresh-water lakes, it was very suitable for a 
skulking life. On the other hand, it had been visited and 
laid waste by the barbarous soldiery, whose post at Fort- 
William was not far distant, and some of whom were 
scattered in parties over the country. 

After a rough night voyage of thirty miles, during which 
they passed and exchanged a few words with a boat con- 
taining armed militia, but which could not stop to inspect 
their company, on account of the storm, Charles and his 
friends landed at four in the morning (July 5) at a place 
called Little Mallack, on the south side of Loch Nevis, one of 
the estuaries mentioned. Knowing that there were military 
in the neighbourhood, they were afraid to leave this place, 
and accordingly remained in it for three days and three 
nights, sleeping in the open air. The Laird of Mackinnon 
having on the fourth day gone with one of the boatmen to 
seek a cave for a lodging, the Prince, with John Mackinnon 
and the other three rowers, took to the boat, and proceeded 
up the loch. As they turned a point, they suddenly struck 
their oars upon a boat tied to a rock, and saw iive men with 
red crosses over their bonnets standing on the shore. These 
men, who were government militia, immediately called out, 
demanding whence they came. The boatmen answered 
from Sleat. The militiamen ordered them to come ashore, 
intending, of course, to inspect the boat, and finding their 
order not complied with, they instantly jumped into their 
own boat and gave chase. At the time when the boat 
containing the Prince came in sight of these men, Charles 
was sitting in the bottom, between Mackinnon's knees, and 
covered by Mackinnon's plaid, in order to be out of sight, 
in case of any such misadventure occurring. On being 
hailed by the men, he was for jumping ashore ; but Mac- 
kinnon would not allow him to do so, and constrained him, 
though with some difficulty, to remain in his present situa- 
tion. Now that the hostile party was in pursuit, Charles 
was constantly inquiring of Mackinnon if they were gain- 
ing upon them. Mackinnon replied in the negative, but 
nevertheless gave his men directions to have their muskets 
ready, in case of their being overtaken, and when they 
fired, to be sure to take good aim. The Prince, hearing 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 331 

these orders, intreated that no life might be taken without 
absolute necessity; to which John heartily agreed, but 
nevertheless said that, if forced to come to blows, he would 
make it his endeavour that not a man escaped to tell the 
tidings. Presently they approached a part of the shore 
where the hill was wooded down to the very beach. i Here/ 
said he to the Prince, l it may be quite safe to land, for, if 
once we be on shore, the red crosses will be obliged to sheer 
off, for fear of our firing at them from behind the trees.' 
The boat had no sooner touched the shore, than the Prince, 
with Mackinnon and one of the men, leaped out, and nimbly 
ascended the hill, from the top of which they beheld the 
adverse party, as predicted by John, returning from their 
fruitless pursuit. Mackinnon, congratulating the Prince 
on his escape, asked his pardon for thwarting his wishes in 
the boat, which Charles, it may be imagined, readily granted. 
His reason, he said, for wishing to jump ashore was, l that 
he would rather fight for his life than be taken prisoner ; 
but he hoped that God would never so far afflict the king 
his father, or the duke his brother, as that he should fall 
alive into the hands of his enemies.' 1 

On this eminence the Prince slept three hours, and then 
returning to the boat, he re-embarked, and crossed the loch 
to a little island near the seat of Macdonald of Scothouse. 
Here Charles remained, while John Mackinnon went to 
Scothouse with a message to Clanranald, who was there 
residing. As John was drawing near the house, he saw 
Clanranald walking by himself, who no sooner spied the 
approaching stranger, than he hastened to get within doors. 
John overtook him, and seized him by the skirts just as he 
was entering the door. The old chief, turning round in 
alarm, was reassured when he found himself addressed by 
John Mackinnon. They went to the back of the garden to 
converse, and there John informed him that he had come 
to apprise him of the Prince being in the neighbourhood, 
and that it was the wish of his Eoyal Highness that Clan- 
ranald should advise as to his future course, and point out 
some one into whose hands he might now with safety be 
put. Clanranald, although he had befriended Charles in 
South Uist, was not now disposed to do so, probably in 
consequence of the trouble which had in the interim befallen 
others who had concerned themselves in his behalf. He 
therefore treated Mackinnon's message with coldness, say- 
ing that he did not know of any one who could take charge 

1 John Mackinnon's Narrative, Jacobite Memoirs, 490. 



332 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

of the Prince, and that the only course he could advise him 
to take, was to return to whence he came, and remain in the 
island of Rona — this being 1 a small grass island evidently 
unfit to shelter the royal fugitive. Mackinnon took leave 
of him in great indignation, and returned to report his 
mission to the Prince, who heard the recital with tranquil- 
lity, only remarking, ■ Well, Mr Mackinnon, there is no 
help for it ; we must do the best we can for ourselves,' 1 

They now returned across the loch to Little Mallack, 
where they had first landed from Skye, and where they 
were rejoined by the old Laird of Mackinnon and the other 
boatman. Having resolved to apply to Macdonald of 
Morar, they set out for the house of that gentleman, which 
was situated on the fresh-water lake, Loch Morar, about 
seven or eight Highland miles distant. As they passed a 
cottage on their way, they observed some people coming 
down towards the road, whereupon the Prince caused John 
Mackinnon to fold his plaid for him, and throw it over his 
shoulder, with his knapsack upon it, tying* a handkerchief 
about his head, to complete the disguise. As they went 
along, a stranger asked John if that was his servant, to 
which he answered in the affirmative, adding that, as the 
poor fellow was not well, he intended to leave him at 
Morar's house. 

On their way, they received at a sheiling a draught of 
milk from the hand of Archibald Macdonnell, a grandson 
of Scothouse. At another cottage belonging to Scothouse 
they bought another draught of milk, and obtained a guide 
to conduct them to Morar, the night being dark, and the 
road bad. At the ford near Morar's house, which was 
pretty deep, Mr Mackinnon desired the guide to take that 
poor sick young fellow (pointing to the Prince) upon his 
back and carry him across. The man said, in the true 
Highland spirit, of which the maid-servant at John Mac- 
kinnon's house had afforded another specimen, < The deil be 
on the back where he comes, or any fellow of a servant 
like him ; but I'll take you on my back, sir, if you please, 
and carry you safely through the ford.' Mackinnon de- 
clined the proposal, saying that, if the lad must wade, he 
would wade too, to help him, and take care lest any harm 
should happen to him. He then took hold of the Prince's 
arm, and they went through the ford together. The man's 

1 The particulars of this interview were obtained by the Rev. Mr Forbes 
from the mouth of John Mackinnon, as that gentleman lay confined with 
lameness in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh April 25, 1761. They are 
recorded more at large in the Lyon in Mourning, viii. 1831. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 333 

refusal in reality pleased the Prince and his friends very 
much, as it proved that his person was pretty well con- 
cealed. 

At an early hour in the morning' they reached Morar, 
which they found to have been burnt, in consequence of its 
owner being in the insurrection. Mr Macdonald and his 
family were accommodated in a bothy or hut near the ruins 
of the house. Mackinnon entered this small mansion by 
himself, and roused the family, when Morar hastily rose 
from bed, and came to the door to greet the Prince. 
Having 1 dismissed his children and servants, he introduced 
Charles into the house, where his lady, a sister of Locheil, 
no sooner beheld that sad spectacle of fallen royalty, than 
she burst into a flood of tears. The only refreshment she 
could set before the party was some cold salmon warmed 
again, without bread. The Prince and his friends were 
then conducted by Morar to a cave near by, where they 
slept ten hours. 

Morar now went to seek for young Clanranald, whose 
aid or advice might, he thought, be of service to the 
Prince. Returning next day to the party, he appeared, to 
their great surprise and regret, in quite a diiferent humour 
from what he had manifested at their first arrival. When 
he told the Prince that he had been unable to find young 
Clanranald, Charles said to him, l Well, Morar, there is no 
help for that ; you must do the best you can yourself.' He 
answered that he could do nothing' for his Eoyal Highness, 
and as little did he know of any person to whose care he 
could recommend him. ' This is very hard/ said the 
Prince; 'you were very kind yesternight, Morar, and said 
you could find out a hiding'-place proof against all the search 
of the enemy's forces, and now you say you can do nothing 
at all for me. You can travel to no place but what I will 
travel to ; no eatables or drinkables can you take but what 
I can take a share along with you, and be well content 
with them, and even pay handsomely for them. When 
fortune smiled on me, and I had pay to give, I found some 
people ready enough to serve me ; but now that fortune 
frowns on me, and I have no pay to give, they forsake me 
in my necessity.' 

Morar's conduct highly incensed John Mackinnon, who 
said, 'I am persuaded, Morar, though you deny it, you 
have met with your betters, and got bad counsel, otherwise 
you would not have changed your mind so much as you 
have done in so short a time.' Morar persisted in denying 
that he had seen young Clanranald, or received any bad 



334 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

counsel; but he was as firm in continuing to refuse all 
further aid to the Prince. Charles, completely overcome 
by his feelings, now broke out with — ' Oh, God Almighty ! 
look down upon my circumstances, and pity me, for I am 
in a most melancholy situation. Some of those who joined 
me at first, and appeared to be my fast friends, now turn 
their backs upon me in my greatest need; and some of 
those again who refused to join me, and stood at a distance, 
are now among my best friends ; for it is remarkable that 
those of Sir Alexander Macdonald's following have been 
most faithful to me in my distress, and contributed greatly 
to my preservation.' Then he added, 'I hope, Mr Mac- 
kinnon, you will not desert me too, but do all for my pre- 
servation that you can. 7 The aged chief, supposing himself 
to be here addressed, declared, while the tears gushed from 
his eyes, ' 1 never will leave your Eoyal Highness in the 
day of danger, but will, under God, do all I can for you, 
and go with you wherever you order me.' ' Oh no/ said 
the Prince, ' that is too much for a person of your advanced 
years, sir. I heartily thank you for your readiness to take 
care of me ; but one of your age cannot well hold out with 
the dangers and fatigues I must undergo. It was to your 
friend John here, a stout young man, I was addressing 
myself. 7 ' Well, then/ said John, ' with the help of God 
I will go through the wide world with your Royal High- 
ness. 7 

The old laird here accordingly parted with them, and 
the Prince and John Mackinnon proceeded, with a son of 
Morar's for guide, to Borodale, the residence of Mr Angus 
Macdonald, and the place where Charles had first lodged 
after his landing from France. He said he was sure that 
honest old Angus Macdonald would do all he could for him. 
In the course of the night the little party had crossed into 
Arisaig, and before day, they arrived at Borodale, where 
they found the house burnt, and the proprietor lodging, like 
Morar, in a bothy or hut. John Mackinnon went in 
abruptly, desiring Angus to rise. He was at first a little 
alarmed, but soon recognising Mackinnon 7 s voice, rose in 
his blankets, and came to the door. John asked him if he 
had heard anything of the Prince, to which he answered 
'No.' 'What/ said John, 'would you give for a sight of 
him?' 'Time was/ replied the old gentleman, 'that I 
would have given a hearty bottle to see him safe ; but since 
I see you, I expect to hear some news of him. 7 ' Well, 
then/ said Mackinnon, 'I have brought him here, and 
will commit him to your charge. I have done my duty ; 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 335 

do you yours.' i I am glad of it,' said Angus, l and shall 
not fail to take care of him. I shall lodge him so securely, 
that all the forces in Britain shall not find him out.' l 

According to the tradition of Angus Macdonald's family, 
the Prince did not enter this humble bothy without reluc- 
tance, remembering that one of his sons had never been 
heard of since the day of Culloden. He felt distressed at 
the idea of meeting a mother who had suffered this sad loss 
on his account. When he did enter, he approached the lady 
with tears in his eyes, and asked if she could endure the 
sight of one who had been the cause of so much distress to 
her and her family. Yes, she said, she would be glad to 
serve her Prince, though all her sons had perished in his 
service, for in doing so they had only done their duty. 2 

John Mackinnon now left the Prince, and returned to 
his house in Skye, where he no sooner arrived, than he and 
two of his rowers were taken by a party of militia, who 
conveyed them to Kilvory, and placed them in the cruel 
hands of Captain Ferguson. Being required by this mon- 
ster to disclose the place of the Prince's retreat, and giving 
a positive refusal to the demand, Ferguson caused one of 
the men to be stripped, tied to a tree, and lashed till the 
blood gushed from both his sides ; he also threatened Mac- 
kinnon with the same treatment. Nothing could extort a 
confession from these faithful men. Mackinnon was then 
sent on board the Furnace sloop-of-war, where he met with 
civil treatment from General Campbell. He was afterwards 
sent to London, and confined there till July 1747 . 3 

Angus Macdonald kept the Prince for three days in a 
hut in the neighbouring wood, and in the meantime his 

1 John Mackinnon's Narrative, Jacobite Memoirs, 496. 

2 Communicated to me by the late Mr Macdonald of Glenaladale (originally 
of Borodale), grandson of the lady. It only seems doubtful whether the inci- 
dent took place now, or at the end of April, when the Prince embarked at 
Borodale for the Long Island. 

t 3 Mr Mackinnon came to Edinburgh at the beginning of the year 1761, 
afflicted by a severe lameness from the top of his thighs downwards. He was 
then in necessitous circumstances, and had left a wife and four children in 
Skye poorly provided for. From an independence of spirit, he chose rather 
to go into the public infirmary than be a burden to particular friends ; but 
after a residence there of six months, he was dismissed uncured, and with 
no hope of relief except from the waters at Bath. Carried thither by the 
generosity of a faithful few residing in Edinburgh, he received every kindness 
suited to his circumstances from Thomas Bowdler of Ashley, Dr Haviland, 
and some other Jacobite gentlemen ; but here also he steadily insisted, 
against their wishes, upon going into the public hospital. His disorder 
defied all remedy, and he died on the 11th of May 1762, aged forty-eight. Dr 
Haviland then gave his body a place in the same grave in which he designed 
to be buried himself. An inscription intended for a monument over his grave 
(never executed) appeared in the Scots Magazine for that year. 



336 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

youngest son, John Macdonald, went with a letter from 
Charles to Mr Macdonald of Glenaladale, lately major of 
the Clanranald regiment, whom he expected to befriend 
him in the present exigency. During the absence of this 
messenger, intelligence was received of the capture of the 
old Laird of Mackinnon in Morar's bothy; 1 and it being 
then judged unsafe for Charles to stay any longer so near 
Borodale, he was conducted, by Angus and another son 
named Ranald, to a more secure place of retreat, at the 
distance of four miles along the shore to the eastward. 
The coast there consists of a steep precipice : in the cleft 
between two rocks a hut had been artfully constructed, with 
the grassy side of the turf outwards, so that it exactly 
resembled a natural green bank, This hut formed the new 
hiding-place of the royal fugitive. The vessel in which 
John Mackinnon was kept after his capture having come 
into Lochnanuagh, lay for some time at anchor close to this 
retreat, without any one on board having the slightest 
suspicion that it was a place of concealment. 

The Prince remained secure in this place for several days. 
Two days after he had despatched John Macdonald to Glen- 
aladale, namely, on the 15th of July, the letter was delivered 
into the hands of that gentleman, who immediately came to 
Borodale, and paid the Prince a visit. Next day Angus 
Macdonald received a letter from his son-in-law, Angus 
Mackechan, residing in the glen of Morar, informing him 
that a rumour was beginning to be whispered about of the 
Prince being concealed at Borodale, and offering for the 
acceptance of his Royal Highness a more secure asylum 
which he had prepared in Morar. The Prince sent Ranald 
Macdonald to survey and report upon the nature of this 
asylum, and next day sent out John to watch the motions 
of the military. The latter soon returned, with the alarm- 

1 This gentleman was sent to London in the vessel commanded by the atro- 
cious Ferguson, in which also were Donald and Malcolm Macleod. Though 
subjected to the same severe privations and cruel usage with the rest, and 
nearly seventy years of age, he maintained rather better health than any 
of his companions. After lying for a long time in the Thames, he was put 
into the New Jail in South wark, whence he was liberated in July 1747. Bishop 
Forbes thus notices the death of this old gentleman : — 

« May 7, 1756.— Died at his house of Kilmaine, in the Isle of Skye, John Mac- 
kinnon of that ilk, i. e. the old Laird of Mackinnon, in the 75th year of his 
age, leaving issue two sons and a daughter, Charles, Lachlan, and Margaret, 
all born after the 71st year of his age. He used to say he hoped God would 
not take him off the earth but on the field of battle, when fighting for his 
king and country. He frequently retired to the cave in which the Prince, 
and he himself, and his lady, dined just before the Prince's leaving Skye in 
his skulking, and there he would have entertained himself with laying down 
a plan for the Restoration, and with the execution thereof in theory, and 
then came home extremely well pleased.' 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 337 

ing intelligence that a government ship had entered Loch- 
nanuagh, being, it would appear, the same in which John 
Mackinnon was confined. Charles, without waiting for 
Ranald's return, set out with Glenaladale, Angus and John 
Macdonald, to Glen Morar; and on the way, at a place 
called Corry-bincabir, met Angus Mackechan, who informed 
them that young Clanranald had come to a place a few 
miles off, in order to conduct his Royal Highness to a retreat 
which he had prepared for him. Charles would gladly have 
gone immediately to put himself under the protection of 
young Clanranald, but the lateness of the hour determined 
him to prefer the Glen Morar asylum for that night, and 
go to the other place next day. 

Borodale, who had gone on before as an advanced guard, 
learning, in the course of the night, that General Campbell, 
with several men-of-war and a considerable body of troops, 
had anchored near Loch Nevis, while Captain Scott had 
brought another party into the lower part of Arisaig, 
waited upon the Prince next morning (the 23d) with that 
alarming intelligence. The situation of the Prince was 
now in the highest degree critical. He seemed in a great 
measure surrounded by his enemies ; for they, having be- 
come aware of his landing amongst the estuaries formerly 
mentioned, had drawn a cordon of troops along from the 
head of Loch Hourn, the most northerly, to the head of 
Loch Sheil, the most southerly, so as to leave him scarcely 
any chance of escape on the land side. The cordon con- 
sisted of single sentinels, planted within sight of each other, 
who permitted no one to pass unchallenged. By night, 
large fires were lighted, between which the men continually 
passed to and fro, so as to leave no place for more than a 
few minutes at a time unvisited. It was now impossible 
for the Prince to join young Clanranald, for the troops 
were interposed. To remain where he was seemed equally 
dangerous, as the enemy might be expected gradually to 
close in upon him, and make his capture almost a matter of 
certainty. 

Feeling the necessity of using great caution, he now 
parted with Angus Macdonald and Angus Mackechan, and 
taking with him only Glenaladale, Lieutenant John Mac- 
donald, Glenaladale's brother, and the other John Mac- 
donald, son of Angus of Borodale, that the party might be 
as little conspicuous as was consistent with his safety, he 
set out at eleven in the forenoon, and by mid-day reached 
the top of a hill called Scoorveig, at the eastern extremity 
of Arisaig, where he stopped to take some refreshment, 

VOL. V. V 



338 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

while one of his attendants (John Macdonald, brother to 
Glenaladale) went to Glenfinnin for intelligence, and to 
appoint two men stationed there to join the Prince that 
evening* on the top of a hill called Swerninck Corrichan, 
above Loch Arkaig, in Locheil's country. The Prince soon 
afterwards set out, with his two remaining" friends, and 
about two o'clock came to the top of a hill called Fruigh- 
vain. Here, observing some men driving cattle, Glenala- 
dale walked forward to inquire the reason, and soon after 
returned with the intelligence that they were his tenants 
flying before the approach of a strong body of troops, who 
had come to the head of Loch Arkaig, to prevent the Prince 
from escaping in that direction. It was of course unad- 
visable to pursue that route, and the wanderers immediately 
despatched a messenger to Glenfinnin, which was only about 
a mile off, to recall Glenaladale's brother and the two men 
who were to have gone to Loch Arkaig. Glenaladale like- 
wise sent a man to a neighbouring hill for Donald Cameron 
of Glenpean, an honest farmer, who had removed thither 
with his effects on the approach of the soldiers, and who, 
from his acquaintance with the country, promised to be an 
excellent guide. While they waited the return of these 
messengers, one of the tenants' wives, pitying the condition 
of her landlord, came up the hill with some new milk for 
his refreshment. The Prince, perceiving her approach, 
covered his head with a handkerchief, and assumed the 
appearance of a servant who had got a headache. The day 
was excessively warm, and the milk, of course, grateful to 
the palate of a wayworn traveller; but Glenaladale used 
afterwards to confess that he could as well have spared the 
officious kindness of the good woman. It was with some 
difficulty, moreover, that he could get her dismissed with- 
out the pail in which she had brought the milk, so as to 
enable him with safety to give the Prince a share more 
suitable to his real than his supposed rank. 

The messenger who had been sent to Glenfinnin soon after 
returned, without having found Glenaladale's brother or the 
two men (they having run off towards the place where they 
expected to find the party), but brought intelligence that a 
hundred of the Argyle militia were approaching the very 
hill on which the Prince was stationed. On this alarm- 
ing news, the terrified party dislodged, without waiting for 
Glenpean ; and set forward on their perilous journey. About 
eleven at night, as they were passing- through a hollow way 
between two hills, they observed a man coming down one 
of the hills towards them ; upon which Charles and young 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 339 

Macdonald stepped aside, while Glenaladale advanced to 
discover whether he was friend or foe. This person turned 
out to be the very individual they were most anxious to see, 
Donald Cameron of Glenpean, who had made all haste to 
overtake them after receiving- their message. Glenaladale 
immediately brought him to the Prince, who had lodged one 
night in his house soon after the battle of Culloden, and to 
whom he now recounted all he knew regarding the position 
of the king's troops. As desired by the messenger, Donald 
had brought all the provisions he could g'ather ; but the 
whole consisted of only a few handfuls of oatmeal and about 
a pound of butter. Miserable as this fare was in quality 
and amount, it proved of great service during the next few 
days, while the party were passing through the guards. 
The Prince no sooner saw it, than, having been previously 
almost famished, he ate heartily of it : for four days he got 
nothing' but a little of the oatmeal and butter. 1 It was 
probably to this period of his career that he alluded when, 
some weeks after, in passing into Badenoch to meet Locheil, 
he told a gentleman of the Keppoch tribe that he had 
come to know what a quarter of a peck of meal was, hav- 
ing once subsisted upon such a quantity for the better part 
of a week. 2 

Donald Cameron, assuming the character of their guide, 
now set forward with them through a road so wild and 
rugged, as to be almost impervious even in daylight. Tra- 
velling all night with untiring diligence, they arrived next 
morning (July 24th) at the top of a hill in the braes of Loch 
Arkaig, called Mam-nan-Callum, from whence they could 
perceive their enemy's camp, distant about a mile. Cameron 
knew that this hill had been searched the day before, and 
therefore conjecturing that it would not be again searched 
that day, he counselled that they should take up their abode 
there till the evening, and endeavour in the meantime to 
procure the refreshment of sleep. They reposed for two 
hours, after which the whole party, except the Prince, got 
up to keep sentry. They had not been long awake, when 
they were alarmed by the appearance of a man at a little 
distance. Cameron, on account of his acquaintance with 
the country and its people, was selected to approach and 
accost this person, who, to the great joy of the whole party, 
turned out to be Glenaladale's brother/ This gentleman had 
no sooner discovered, on the preceding day, that the Prince 

1 Statement taken down from Donald Cameron by Bishop Forbes : Lyon in 
Mourning. 

2 Lyon in Mourning, viii. 1828. 



340 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

did not keep his appointment, than he began to wander, in a 
state of extreme alarm, through the country in search of 
either his Koyal Highness or of intelligence regarding his 
fate. The same apprehensions which he had entertained 
regarding the party, they had entertained regarding him ; 
and it was now with sensations of the utmost pleasure that 
these unfortunate gentlemen mutually congratulated each 
other upon a meeting which they had so little reason to 
expect. 

Charles remained with his trusty little band upon the 
hill Mam-nan-Callum all that day, without experiencing 
any disturbance from the soldiers. They set out about nine 
in the evening towards the south, and at one in the morning 
(July 25) came to Corrinangaul, on the confines of Knoidart 
and Loch Arkaig. Here Cameron hoped to fall in with and 
procure provisions from some of the people who had fled 
before the face of the encroaching soldiery. During this 
harassing and perilous march, the party had had no food 
but a little of Donald Cameron's oatmeal and butter, eaten 
without culinary preparation. 

For two days the Prince had now been skirting along the 
interior of that chain of sentries which has been described 
as extending from Loch Hourn to Loch Sheil. In his dreary 
and stealthy night journeys he could distinctly see the fires 
which marked the posts of the enemy, and even hear the 
stated cries of the sentinels, as they slowly crossed back- 
wards and forwards. These fires were placed at brief in- 
tervals, and every quarter of an hour a patroling party 
passed along to see that the sentinels were upon the alert. 
It seemed scarcely possible that the forlorn little party 
should evade or break from a toil whose meshes were at once 
so strong and so closely set. Yet the want of provisions, 
and the fear of being soon inextricably environed, rendered 
it imperatively necessary that they should make the attempt, 
though it were only to anticipate their fate. 

This desperate enterprise being fixed for the succeeding 
night, Glenaladale and Glenpean ventured down to some 
sheilings in search of provisions, while the Prince and the 
other two Macdonalds remained upon the hill. The sheilings 
were found to have been abandoned, and the two commis- 
saries returned without their errand. It was then judged 
proper to shift from their present situation to a secret 
place upon the brow of a hill at the head of Lochnaig, 
which was about a mile from the position of the troops, 
and where they might expect to spend the intervening day 
in greater security. Here they slept for some time. After 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 341 

awaking", Glenpean and Glenaladale's brother were sent off 
to the hill above them in quest of food, while Glenaladale 
and the younger Macdonald watched over the Prince, who 
still remained asleep. The commissaries did not return till 
the afternoon, when two small cheeses proved all that they 
had been able to procure throughout the country. This was 
very dry food ; and as they did not know when they might 
get more, they were obliged to use it very sparingly. To 
increase the mortification of the unhappy Prince, the com- 
missaries reported that a troop of a hundred men were com- 
ing up the opposite side of the hill in search of the fugitive 
country people, and that they possibly might light upon 
their place of concealment. 

Under these distressing circumstances, it was Charles's 
wisest, or rather his only policy, to remain as closely con- 
cealed as possible. Notwithstanding, therefore, that the 
soldiers searched very narrowly, and all round him, he kept 
perfectly close, with his company, till eight in the evening, 
when, the search being done, they set out at a quick pace 
towards the steep hill called Drumachosi. In ascending this 
hill, immediately after passing the small camp in the valley, 
the Prince met a nearly fatal accident. The night was 
very dark, the hill very steep, and the gentlemen went in a 
line, Donald Cameron first, the Prince next, after him 
Glenaladale, behind whom came the two John Macdonalds. 
In crossing a small rivulet which gushed out of the hill, and 
glided over a precipice, Charles slipped a foot, and fell, and 
he would certainly have tumbled over the rock, and been 
dashed to pieces below, if Cameron had not seized him by one 
arm, and Glenaladale by the other, and so recovered him. 1 
On reaching the top of the hill, they discerned the fires of a 
camp directly in their front, which they thought they could 
scarcely shun. Resolved, however, to make the attempt at 
all hazards, they approached the dreaded object till they 
could actually hear the soldiers talking to each other. Then 
creeping up the next hill, they spied the fires of another 
camp, which also seemed to lie directly in their path. Here 
they at last determined to make the attempt. 

Cameron at this juncture, with the true generosity of a 
Highlander, proposed to go forward himself, and prove the 
possibility of escape, before permitting the Prince to hazard 
his more precious person. ' If I get safe through/ he re- 
marked, ' and also return safe, then you may venture with 

1 These particulars are given in a letter addressed by Glenaladale to Bishop 
Forbes, and which the bishop received in December 1749 ; a copy of which 
document is preserved in his collection in my possession. 



342 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

greater security, and I shall be all the better fitted to con- 
duct you.' Be it remarked, he made this courageous pro- 
posal in the face of an omen which, though ridiculous 
enough, was perhaps sufficient to have unmanned a person 
who, with equal superstition, had not so noble or so excit- 
ing a cause to brace his nerves. He began to complain that 
his nose was itchy, a clear sign, he averred, that they had 
great dangers to go through. Charles, notwithstanding his 
perilous circumstances, could not help laughing at this fan- 
tastic alarm, though he must have been at the same time 
deeply impressed with admiration of the devotedness and 
real bravery of the Highlander. 

Glenpean having put the passage to the proof, and, to the 
great joy of the company, returned in safety, the whole set 
forward, headed by him as guide. It was now about two 
o'clock in the morning, and the brilliancy of the fires was 
beginning to fade before the advancing lights of day. Be- 
twixt the two posts which they intended to cross there was 
a small mountain stream, whose winter torrents had, in 
the course of ages, worn a deep channel among the rocks. 
Up this deep and narrow defile, at the moment when the 
sentinels were returning to the fires, and had their backs 
turned towards the place, the party crept upon all-fours, with 
the stealthy caution and quiet of a party of Indian savages. 
A few minutes sufficed to carry them to a place where they 
were completely screened from the observation of the enemy. 

Having thus escaped from one of the greatest dangers 
which had yet environed him, Charles, whose spirits always 
displayed great elasticity, gaily addressed Glenpean with an 
inquiry about his nose. The good gentleman confessed it 
was a great deal better since they had passed the sentries, 
but that it was still c a wee yeuky.' ' What! Donald/ cried 
the Prince gaily, c have we still more guards to pass ? ' 

After walking about two miles, they came to a place on 
the Glenelg side of the head of Loch Hourn called Corris- 
corridale, where, finding what they considered a well-con- 
cealed spot, they called a halt, and partook of some refresh- 
ments. As already mentioned, the commissariat was in a 
miserable state. Animal spirits, however, compensated 
every privation to Charles. Cutting a slice of cheese, which 
he covered with oatmeal, and seasoning that dry fare with 
a drink from the neighbouring spring, he contentedly 
stretched the form upon the cold ground, whose home, in 
the words of the old song, c should have been a palace.' He 
passed the whole of the succeeding day in this place, with- 
out any improvement in his food. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 343 

It was now resolved, as the West Highlands had become 
so unsafe a place of residence, to repair northwards to a 
portion of the Mackenzie's country, which, on account of 
the loyalty of the inhabitants, had not been subjected to a 
military police. They decamped for this purpose about 
eight o'clock at night, when, to their indescribable alarm, 
they discovered that they had spent the day within cannon- 
shot of two of the enemy's posts, and that at this moment 
a company of soldiers was employed in their immediate 
neighbourhood in driving some sheep into a hut for 
slaughter. This, however, only hastened their march; and 
about three o'clock in the morning (July 27) they reached 
Glenshiel, a wild vale in the estate of the Earl of Seaiorth. 
The little provision they had had being now entirely ex- 
hausted, Glenaladale and John Macdonald (Borodale's son) 
were sent out in search of supplies, while Charles remained 
behind, with Cameron and the elder Lieutenant Macdonald, 
Glenaladale's brother. While Glenaladale was inquiring* 
among some country people about a guide to conduct them 
to Pollew, where he understood that some French vessels had 
lately been seen, a Glengarry man came running* up, hav- 
ing been chased by soldiers out of his own country, where 
they had killed his father the day before. Glenaladale knew 
this man at first sight, and being aware that he had served 
in the Prince's army, and was a trustworthy person, re- 
solved to keep him in reserve as a guide to Glengarry's 
country, in case he should not succeed in his present quest. 
Having then furnished himself with some provisions, he 
returned to the Prince ; and as soon as they had refreshed 
themselves, the whole party retired to a secure place on the 
face of an adjacent hill, in order to sleep. Getting up about 
four in the afternoon, they dismissed their faithful guide, 
Cameron, who could no longer be of any service. Soon 
after. Glenaladale. observing ""the Glengarry fugitive pass- 
ing in his way back to his own country, slipped out of his 
den. and, without disclosing his purpose, used arguments 
with the man to induce him to remain in a by-place till 
such time as he could be sure of a guide to Pollew. He then 
returned to the Prince, who approved of his precaution. 
About seven o'clock, the man whom he had employed to 
procure a guide to Pollew, brought intelligence that the 
only French vessel which had been there was g*one, and 
that a guide could not have been procured, even though. 
that had not been the case. Glenaladale immediately dis- 
missed the messenger, and brought this intelligence to the 
Prince, whose course it was now resolved to change in the 



344 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

way proposed. Accordingly, the Glengarry man being* in- 
troduced to his Koyal Highness, and having undertaken the 
office, the whole party set out late at night towards the 
south, designing to form a junction, if possible, with 
Locheil and some other chiefs, who, it was understood, still 
remained secure even in the vicinity of the enemy's forts. 

Charles experienced at this juncture one of those remark- 
able deliverances which induced so many of his adherents to 
believe that his life was under the immediate and constant 
care of Heaven. Before proceeding very far on this night's 
journey, Glenaladale, clapping his hands upon his side, 
declared he had lost his purse. As this contained forty 
guineas, which the Prince had confided to him for the 
purchase of provisions, and which was the sole stock of the 
company, Glenaladale was extremely perplexed at the loss, 
and proposed to return to the place from whence they had 
just set out, in order to search for it. Charles opposed 
this measure, and used many intreaties to prevent it ; but 
Glenaladale insisted upon the necessity of recovering what 
was so important to them, and accordingly went back along 
with the younger lieutenant, while the Prince, with Glen- 
aladale's brother and the guide, remained behind to await 
their return. While Glenaladale was absent, Charles spied an 
officer and two private soldiers advancing underarms along 
the path which they had just left. Trembling with joy at 
so signal a deliverance, he and his friends retired behind a 
rock, where they could see the motions of the soldiers, without 
being seen by them. The men passed by, unconscious of 
the prize which had so nearly fallen into their hands. 
Though rejoicing in their own preservation, Charles and 
his two companions remained in a state of great anxiety for 
the safety of Glenaladale and his companion, who might 
chance to meet the enemy in their turn. On coming to 
their last resting-place, these two gentlemen found the purse, 
but, upon opening it, discovered, to their mortification, that 
the gold was gone. 6 Reflecting/ continues Glenaladale's 
Journal, i that it might have been taken away by a little 
boy whom their landlord had sent with a present of milk to 
Glenaladale, and whom they had left at the place where the 
purse was forgotten, they went back a mile farther to their 
landlord's house, whose name was Gilchrist Macrath, 1 and 

1 Glenaladale speaks only of having obtained provisions from this Macrath, 
while the Prince remained in hiding at a distance. In Mr Home's history, 
a somewhat different account is given, I know not on what authority. The 
whole passage in that work is as follows : — ' After having crossed the line of 
posts, Glenaladale, thinking the West Highlands a very unsafe place for 
Charles, resolved to conduct him to the Ross- shire Highlands, amongst those 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 345 

through his means got the boy to restore all back, which he 
did to a trifle/ Fortunately, in returning" to the Prince, 
they took a different route, and thus escaped the little party 
of soldiers, who must otherwise have met them. When the 
company was once more reunited, they joined heartily in 
returning thanks to God for their safety. Charles was now 
so thoroughly impressed with a belief of his immunity from 
danger, that he said he ' scarcely believed he could be taken 
though he had a mind to it.' 

They travelled all the remainder of the night, till they 
came to a hill-side above Strathcluanie, where, choosing a 
secret place, they rested till three o'clock in the succeeding 
afternoon (July 28). Then setting out again, they had not 
walked above a mile along the hill-side, when they were 

Mackenzies who had remained loyal, and therefore were not visited with 
troops. These Mackenzies Glenaladale thought would not hetray Charles; 
and the person whom he pitched upon to confide in was Sir Alexander Mac- 
kenzie of Coul. Charles and his attendants, setting out for Ross-shire on 
foot, suffered greatly in their journey from want of provisions ; and when 
they came to the Braes of Kintail, inhabited by the Macraws, a barbarous 
people, among whom there were but few gentlemen, necessity obliged them 
to call at the house of one Christopher Macraw. Glenaladale, leaving Charles 
with the French officer at some distance, went to Macraw's house, and told 
him that he and two of his friends were likely to perish for want of food, 
and desired him to furnish them with some victuals, for which they would 
pay. Macraw insisted upon knowing who his two friends were, which Glen- 
aladale seemed unwilling to tell. Macraw still insisted ; and Glenaladale 
told him at last that it was young Clanranald, and a relation of his. Not- 
withstanding the consequence of the persons, Macraw, though rich for an 
ordinary Highlander, made Glenaladale pay very dear for some provisions he 
gave him. Having received the money, he grew better humoured, and desired 
Glenaladale and the other two to pass the night in his house ; which they did. 
In the course of the conversation they talked of the times, and Macraw 
exclaimed against the Highlanders who had taken arms with Charles, and 
said that they and those who still protected him were fools and madmen ; 
that they ought to deliver themselves and the country from distress, by giving 
him up, and taking the reward which government had offered. That night 
a Macdonald, who had been in the rebel army, came to Macraw's house : at 
first sight he knew Charles, and took an opportunity of warning Glenaladale 
to take care that Christopher should not discover the quality of his guest. 
Glenaladale desired this man, who seemed so friendly and so prudent, to 
give him his opinion, as he had traversed the country, what he thought was 
the safest place for Charles, mentioning at the same time his scheme of 
carrying him to the country of the Mackenzies ; which Macdonald did not 
approve, saying that there were some troops got among the Mackenzies, and 
that he thought their country by no means safe ; but that he had passed the 
former night in the great hill of Corado, which lies between Kintail and 
Glenmorriston ; that in the most remote part of that hill, called Corambian, 
there lived seven men upon whom the Prince might absolutely depend, for 
they were brave and faithful, and most of them had been in his army. As 
Charles wished to get nearer Lochaber and Badenoch, where Locheil and 
Cluny were, he resolved to go to Corambian. Next morning he and his 
attendants set out, taking Macdonald for their guide,' &c. &c. It is possible 
that Glenaladale omitted or slurred over this circumstance, out of delicacy 
to Macraw, or Macrath, who seems to have behaved on the occasion in a 
manner very uncharacteristic of the genuine Highlander. 



346 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

alarmed by hearing several shots fired on the top of the hill, 
which they rightly judged to be occasioned by the soldiers 
chasing and murdering the poor people who had fled thither 
with their cattle ! They now steered their course north- 
ward, and late at night reached the top of a high hill 
betwixt the Braes of Glenmorriston and Strathglass, where 
they lodged all night, the Prince reposing in an open cave, 
so narrow, as not to permit him to stretch himself. This 
was one of the most uncomfortable nights he had as yet 
spent. The rain had fallen heavily and incessantly during 
the whole of the preceding day, and he was of course wet 
to the skin. No fire could be had to dry him. Without 
food, and deprived of sleep by the narrowness and hardness 
of his bed, the only comfort he could obtain was the miser- 
able one of smoking a pipe. 

The Glengarry man now informed the party of a band of 
skulkers who, he knew, haunted this neighbourhood, and 
were, he thought, likely to prove efficient friends to the 
Prince, in whose army they had served. These were the 
famous Seven Men of Glenmorriston, usually represented as 
robbers, but who only were so in a modified sense. As 
persons engaged in the Kebellion, they had seen their little 
possessions given as a prey to the spoiler; they had also seen 
seventy of their fellow-dalesmen recompensed for surren- 
dering, by being sent as slaves to the colonies. Rendered 
desperate, they had entered into an association of offence and 
defence against the duke and his army, binding themselves 
by solemn oath never to yield, but to fight on any parti- 
cular emergency to the last drop of their blood, and never, 
till the day of their death, to give up their arms. At first 
they were seven in number — namely, Patrick Grant, a 
farmer, commonly called Black Peter of Craskie; John Mac- 
donnell, alias Campbell; Alexander Macdonnell; Alexander, 
Donald, and Hugh Chisholm, brothers ; and Grigor Mac- 
gregor. Afterwards, in the course of their marches with 
the Prince, an eighth, Hugh Macmillan, joined them, and 
took their oath. They lived at this time a wild life amongst 
the mountains, supplying themselves with necessaries chiefly 
by bold attacks upon the military parties, from whom they 
often retrieved cattle and other spoil. 1 

As some specimens of the doings of these men — About 

1 The adventures in connexion with the Glenmorriston men are here for 
the first time minutely and faithfully described, the information being 
derived from the Rev. Mr Forbes's reports of conversations he had, in 1751, 
with Patrick Grant, the chief of the party.— Lyon in Mourning, from p. 1660 
to p. 1703. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 347 

twenty days before the Prince joined them, seven private 
soldiers, journeying" from Fort Augustus to Glenelg with 
some provisions, particularly wine and wheaten bread, 
which were carried on the backs of two horses, were, at a 
rough part of the way, attacked by four of the Glenmorriston 
men, the two Macdonnells and Alexander and Donald Chis- 
holm, who, firing, shot two of the men dead. The others 
ran off, leaving" their guide to shift for himself; and the 
assailants then buried the slain men, let loose the horses, 
and carried the hampers to their cave. Some days after, 
meeting" one Robert Grant, a native of Strathspey, who went 
about for the purpose of informing* on all the men he could 
discover to have been in the Rebellion, they shot him dead, 
and cutting* off his head, placed it upon a tree in a little wood 
near the high road in Glenmorriston, where it long remained 
as a terror to similar evil-doers. Three days after this 
violent act, they met a herd boy, who informed them that 
the cattle belonging to an uncle of Patrick Grant had been 
driven off by a large party of soldiers ; and the tale was soon 
confirmed by their observing* the cattle moving along a part 
of the road from Fort Augustus to Glenelg, about eight 
miles from the former place, and near the hill of Lundy. 
The seven men made all speed to overtake the military party, 
and on getting within hearing*, called out to them, in the 
most threatening manner they could assume, not to advance 
one step farther, but to leave the cattle to them, and be gone. 
The officers, three in number, drew up their party as for 
resistance, and sent one Donald Fraser, a militiaman, to 
learn what they wanted, and to order them to surrender, and 
take advantage of the royal protection. To this Patrick 
Grant answered, that nothing but the cattle would satisfy 
them, and that they would fight to their last breath rather 
than surrender. They also hinted at friends whom they 
had in the rear. The officers, apparently staggered at their 
boldness, and knowing how dangerous a few enemies were 
amidst the neighbouring rocks, did not attempt to fight 
with them, but ordered the cattle to be driven forward. The 
seven men then made a lateral movement, and commenced 
a running fire, two by two, with some effect. Still, the 
cattle and the soldiers moved on. The assailants then 
went forward to a narrow and dangerous pass, where, 
taking up a strong position, they gave their fire with 
such effect, that the men, terrified at this unusual kind of 
warfare, fell into confusion, and many fled. The officers 
then sent a second message, but with the same result, and 
strange to say, the affair ended by the men being allowed 



348 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

to carry off the cattle, together with a horse laden with 
provisions. 1 

It was into the hands of such men that the Prince was now 
to pass. The proposal of the Glengarry man being* acceded 
to, he set out at three in the morning of the 29th, with 
Glenaladale's brother, to seek for them, and, if possible, nego- 
tiate for their receiving the distressed party under their care, 
without the Prince being mentioned. The two messengers 
were successful. The Glenmorriston men agreed to receive 
the party (the chief of whom they understood to be Glenala- 
dale), and it was arranged that the fugitives should repair 
to a cave called Coiraghoth, in the Braes of Glenmorriston, 
where the men engaged to meet them by a particular hour. 
Charles accordingly set out with his attendants for this 
place, where they found, at the time of their arrival, only 
three of the men — namely, the two Macdonnells, and Alex- 
ander Chisholm. Glenaladale went forward to converse 
with them, and hinted that he had young Clanranald in his 
company. They professed that they would be very glad to 
see young Clanranald, and take all possible care of him. 
They were then brought out to meet the party ; but they 
had no sooner set eyes upon the person who was to pass for 
young Clanranald, then they knew him to be the Prince. 
He was received by them with the greatest demonstrations 
of fidelity and kindness, and conducted to their cave, where, 
at Charles's request, they took an oath, administered by 
Glenaladale, in the dreadful terms then customary among 
the Highlanders — 'that their backs should be to God, and 
their faces to the devil, that all the curses the Scriptures did 
pronounce might come upon them and all their posterity, if 
they did not stand firm to the Prince in the greatest dangers, 
and if they should discover to any person, man, woman, or 
child, that the Prince was in their keeping, till once his 
person should be out of danger.' This oath they kept so 
well, that not one of them spoke of the Prince having been 
in their company till a twelvemonth after he had sailed to 
Prance. Charles proposed that he and Glenaladale should 
take a like oath of fidelity to the men — namely, that if 
danger should come, they should stand by one another to 
the last drop of their blood ; but the men refused to take 
this pledge from the Prince and Glenaladale. 

Charles now broke a fast of about forty-eight hours by a 

1 This story, as well as the two preceding, was reported by Patrick Grant 
himself to the Rev. Mr Forbes in 1751, and its truth was attested by the 
Donald Fraser mentioned in it, who happened to be in Edinburgh at the 
same time. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 349 

refreshment of mutton, butter, and cheese, with some whisky. 
Next day, the other four, who had been absent in search of 
provisions, returned with a dead deer and a live ox. These 
men also knew the Prince at first sight, and. took the same 
oath with the rest. They killed the ox in his presence. 
They still wanted bread, and only had a little salt; but fresh 
water was supplied to them in abundance by a spring" which 
glided through the cave. 

On his arrival at the cave, Charles, who was always 
anxious to limit the number of those to whom he trusted 
himself, said he was perfectly well satisfied with the three 
men as a guard, and hinted that, in case he should wish to 
shift his quarters, it might not be necessary to wait for the 
return of the other four. On this being communicated to the 
three men, they (being unable to speak a word of English) 
desired Glenaladale to inform his Royal Highness that they 
could not comply with such a proposal, in consequence of the 
oath they had taken to keep by each other, and that if the 
Prince wanted them to be useful to him, which they would 
gladly be with all their heart, he behoved to trust himself 
to the other four as well as to them. In this there was not 
only high principle towards their comrades, but a prudential 
consideration of what was best for the Prince ; for, by re- 
maining together, they could better keep watch around 
their position, and allow of the detachments necessary for 
obtaining provisions. 

When the four men had taken the oath, Charles told the 
whole seven that they were the first privy council he had 
had sworn to him since the battle of Culloden, and that he 
should never forget them or theirs 'if ever he came to 
his own.' Hereupon one of them hinted to him that a 
priest who used to come amongst them in Glenmorriston 
frequently had told them that King Charles II., after his re- 
storation, was not very mindful of his friends. Their guest 
said he was heartily sorry for that, and hoped he should 
act differently : for this he gave them his word, the word of 
a Prince. 

Three days of repose and good nourishment in Coiraghoth 
recruited the Prince considerably, and being afraid to stay 
too long in any one place, he and his attendants shifted their 
quarters (August 2) to another and equally romantic cave 
about two miles off, named Coirskreaoch. Here, after taking 
some food, and planting sentries at proper points of outlook, 
they made up a bed of heath for the Prince in a small recess 
resembling a closet opening from the cave. He remained 
in this cave four days ; when, hearing that one Campbell; a 



350 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

captain of militia, and factor to the Earl of Seaforth, was 
encamped within four miles of him, he thought proper to 
remove. On the evening of the 6th, he and his attendants 
set out in a northerly direction, and by break of day on the 
7th they had passed the height of the country, and come in 
upon Strathglass, a district belonging to 'the Chisholm.' 1 
In the evening, two of the men who had been left as scouts 
brought intelligence that they need be in no apprehension 
from the factor Campbell for that night; and they then 
repaired to a neighbouring sheiling, or hut, where, after 
kindling a fire, and taking some refreshment, they prepared 
a bed for the Prince, composed of sods with the grass 
uppermost, on which he slept soundly the whole night. 

He remained in this place two days. During that time 
he despatched a messenger to Pollew, to learn with greater 
certainty if any French vessels had touched at Pollew, and 
if they were still there. That he might be ready to take 
advantage of these vessels, if any such should be at Pollew, 
he resolved to draw somewhat nearer to the west coast. His 
messenger, before setting out, had been appointed to bring 
him intelligence to a particular place judged convenient for 
the purpose. Early in the morning of the 9th, he and his 
friends and attendants, about a dozen persons in all, set out 
to the northward by an unfrequented moor-road, and came 
that night to a sheiling^ where they halted for a few hours. 
At two o'clock in the morning of the 10th, they once more 
addressed themselves to their journey, and at noon came to 
Glencannich, where they passed the remainder of the day in 
a wood, and at night repaired to a neighbouring hamlet. 
At two o'clock in the morning they left this place, and 
climbed a hill called Peinacherine, on the north side of 
Glencannich, where they passed the day, and sent off two 
of their party to obtain a fresh supply of provisions. This 
place, which is about forty Highland miles from Pollew, is 
the most northerly point which the Prince reached on the 
mainland. 2 At night they repaired to a sheiling, in which 
they remained two days, waiting for the return of the mes- 
senger. At the end of that time 3 the man rejoined them, 

1 The chief of this small clan, whose residence is at Erchless .Castle in 
Strathglass, is so st}ded in the Highlands. 

2 So says Patrick Grant, in his report to the Rev. Rohert Forbes. A cave is 
shown in Glenstrathfarrar, to the north of Glencannich, as having been used 
by the Prince ; but if Grant be correct, the Prince never was in Glenstrath- 
farrar, nor within the distance from it of seven miles. 

3 ' In Glencanna, upon Lammas day,' said Patrick Grant, ' the Prince spoke 
much to the praise of one of the daughters of the king of France, and drank 
her health, and made all the company do so likewise, Patrick does not re- 
member her name; but the Prince told them that her hair was as black as a 



Charles's wanderings— the mainland. 351 

with intelligence that the only vessel which had ever 
touched at Pollew had sailed again, leaving a couple of men, 
who had set out for Locheil's country in quest of the Prince. 
Anxious to know if these men had any despatches for him, 
he resolved to return towards Locheil's country, in order, if 
possible, to meet them. 

They set out at night (August 13), and recrossing the 
water of Cannich, and passing near young Chisholm's house, 
arrived about two in the morning at a place called Fassana- 
coill in Strathglass. Here it was thought proper to tarry, 
until scouts should bring back intelligence of the state of 
the country to the south, and if the search for him was over 
in that quarter, and the troops returned to Fort Augustus. 
While the scouts were absent, the party remained in a dense 
wood, completely concealed from the neighbouring people. 
They were supplied with provisions by one John Chisholm, 
a farmer, who had been in the insurgent army, but to whom 
they did not at first confide the secret of the Prince being 
of the party. Charles having at length expressed a wish to 
see Chisholm, Patrick Grant and another were despatched 
to brings him. They desired him to come along with them 
to see l a friend whom they knew he would like well to see.' 
Apprehending from this that they had a person of some 
consequence with them, he said he had a bottle of wine 
which a priest had left with him, and he should be glad to 
take it along with him. i What, John/ said Grant, ' have 
you had a bottle of wine all this time, and not given it to 
us before 1 ' On coming into the presence of the Prince, 
John knew him at first sight. Patrick Grant, according to 
his own simple recital, put the bottle of wine into the 
Prince's hancls, and requested him to drink to him, ' for/ 
said he, 6 1 do not remember that your Royal Highness has 
drunk to me since you came among our hands. 7 ( Accord- 
ingly, the Prince put the bottle of wine to his mouth, and 
drank a health to Patrick Grant and all friends. John 
Chisholm having' received good payment for any provisions 

raven, and that she was a mighty fine agreeable lady, being sweet-natured 
and humble ; that he (the Prince) could not fail to love her, as he was sure 
she entertained a great regard for him, as did likewise the dauphin, whom 
the Prince commended much. Upon this John Macdonnell said, " As that 
lady is so good-natured, agreeable, and humble, would to God we had her 
here, for we would take the best care of her in our power, and, if possible, 
be kinder to her than to your Royal Highness." This made them all laugh 
heartily, and the Prince answered, "God forbid, for, were she here, and 
seized, to ransom her person would make peace upon any terms the Elector 
of Hanover would propose." They spoke upon this lady a whole hour without 
intermission.'— From Reports of Conversations with Patrick Grant, by the Rev. 
R. Forbes, 1752. 



352 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

he had furnished, and finding that they had been purchased 
for the use of his Prince, immediately offered to return the 
whole price, and pressed the thing" much ; but the Prince 
would not hear of it at all, and ordered him to keep the money. ? 
Chisholm took the same oath as the Glenmorriston men. 

Some traits of the Prince's personal condition and con- 
duct while with the Glenmorriston men, as reported by 
Patrick Grant, may be appreciated by those who still re- 
gard with a feeling of melancholy interest the tale of the 
last Stuart. His clothes, which were of the Highland 
fashion, were coarse, tattered, and squalid almost beyond 
description, and he constantly slept in them, seldom get- 
ting a clean shirt above once a fortnight. He continued, 
accordingly, to suffer from the annoyance which Malcolm 
Macleod described him as suffering from in Skye. He was 
also afflicted with a very distressing ailment of the bowels. 
Nevertheless, ' he bore up under all his misfortunes with 
great resolution and cheerfulness, never murmuring or 
complaining of the hardness and severity of his condition.' 
He was observed to make a practice of withdrawing him- 
self every morning and evening to perform his devotions. 
6 Glenaladale/ said Patrick Grant, * was interpreter between 
the Prince and us, and it was agreed upon that we should 
say nothing but what the Prince should be made to under- 
stand, and that the Prince should say nothing but what we 
likewise should be made to understand. By this means 
the Prince discovered that we were much addicted to com- 
mon swearing in our conversation, for which he caused 
Glenaladale to reprove us in his [the Prince's] name ; and 
at last the Prince, by his repeated reproofs, prevailed on us 
so far, that we gave that custom of swearing quite up.' 
Patrick Grant stated that the Prince walked so nimbly in 
the daytime, that few persons could hold out with him ; 
but he did not travel so well by night, when, being unac- 
customed to the rough and boggy ground on the Highland 
hills, he was constantly getting himself immersed in some 
deep hole, from which his companions had to draw him 
out. All the time he was with the Glenmorriston men, his 
appetite was observed to be good. When the party were 
at their meals, they sat in a circle, each having his morsel 
on his knee. The Prince would never allow them to keep 
off their bonnets when in his company — probably a pre- 
caution against his rank being detected, in the event of any 
hostile party approaching them before they were aware. 
He used to give directions about their homely cookery, and 
sometimes tended a roast himself. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 353 

It would appear that not exactly everything* said by the 
men was interpreted to the royal wanderer. After he had 
parted with them, and got into new hands, conversing" 
about these faithful adherents, he remarked that he had 
often heard them use the expression Ho Sia?i, which he 
supposed to be the name of one of them, and that certainly 
that person was the chief amongst them, since they ad- 
dressed him so often. In reality, this expression was Aos 
Ian — ' Hark you, John ! 7 — which they often had occasion to 
use to John Macdonnell, one of the cleverest of their num- 
ber, and to whose judgment they usually deferred in all 
important matters. It will amuse the reader to learn that 
Bishop Forbes, with true Jacobite feeling, adopted the mis- 
taken phrase of the Prince, and applied it afterwards as a 
name to John Macdonnell, and wished him to hand it down 
to his children. 

' Patrick Grant said that the Prince, when with them, 
used to declare that he had great confidence in the king* of 
France as a true and fast friend; and that the king* his 
father, and his own brother Henry, w r ould risk all to save 
him. He used to say much in praise of Prince Henry, as 
one preferable to himself in all respects, and as one of the 
greatest spirits and activity.' 

In due time the spies returned with intelligence that the 
troops had returned to their camp at Fort-Augustus, and 
that there was consequently a prospect of the Prince being- 
able to execute his design of crossing the Great Glen, and 
joining Locheil in Badenoch. They therefore set out at 
six in the morning of the 17th, and, travelling by an unfre- 
quented road, at ten in the forenoon reached the Braes of 
Glenmorriston. Having passed the day on the top of a 
hill, they set out at night, but had not travelled above a 
mile, when they learned that a strong military party had 
been sent to the Braes of Glengarry in quest of the Prince. 
Upon this it was resolved to proceed no farther, until the 
motions of the enemy should be farther known ; and they 
repaired to a neighbouring* sheiling, where they passed the 
remainder of the night. In the morning of the 18th, three 
men were sent off towards Loch Arkaig, in Locheil's coun- 
try, two of whom were to seek out, and, if possible, form an 
appointment for the Prince with Cameron of Clunes, while 
the other was to turn at Glengarry, and bring back intel- 
ligence of the movements of the party said to be in that 
district, so that Charles might perhaps be able to proceed, 
even while the meeting with Clunes was in the way of 
being arranged. 

VOL. V. W 



354 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

We have here a remarkable anecdote of the Prince, which 
may be best related in the language in which Mr Forbes 
has reported it from the mouth of Patrick Grant. When 
returned to Glenmorriston Braes, ' the Prince was pretty 
positive to proceed forwards sooner than the Glenmorriston 
men thought it safe for him, and they would by no means 
allow him to go, till they should think it safe for him so to 
do. In a word, the kind contention ran so high, that they 
threatened to turn their backs upon him, and to leave him, 
if he did not listen to their counsel, as they knew the country 
best, and what dangers might happen to him in it ; and im- 
mediately insisted upon his taking some little refreshment 
and rest, and staying there as long as they judged it safe for 
him. But the Prince refused to eat or to drink, because they 
would not do as he desired. Upon this they plainly told 
him, that if he did not eat and drink heartily, he could not 
well hold out with the fatigues he was obliged to undergo 
in his present situation ; that if he should happen to turn 
faintish by abstaining from meat and drink too long, and 
then danger should come nigh them, he would not be in a 
condition either to get away from it, or to act his part in 
any shape so well as he would wish to do ; and therefore 
they urged him more than ever (as being absolutely neces- 
sary for him) to take some refreshment and rest ; which 
accordingly he did. The Prince said, " I find kings and 
princes must be ruled by their privy council, but I believe 
there is not in all the world a more absolute privy council 
than what I have at present," &c. They added, they had 
rather tie him than comply with him, so well did they know 
his danger. The Prince was at last obliged to yield the 
point, as he found them positive to the last degree, and as 
they assured him, if he complied with their requests in 
behalf of his safety, the enemy should not get within two 
miles of him without being discovered. This was the only 
time (said Patrick Grant) that we ever differed with the 
Prince in any one thing, and we were very sorry for it.' 
It is distressing to think that, on the very day when Charles 
was acting thus unreasonably with his humble but faithful 
followers on the Braes of Glenmorriston, the brave Bal- 
merino and the gentle Kilmarnock were laying down their 
lives in his cause on the ensanguined scaffold of Tower- 
hill. 

While the party rested at this place, Patrick Grant and 
Alexander Chisholm went out to forage for provisions, and 
in the course of their walk met the Laird of Glenmorriston 
(Grant), who had been in the Prince's army, and had had his 



Charles's wanderings— the mainland. 355 

house burnt and his lands pillaged in consequence. Glen- 
morriston asked them where they now lived, as they were 
seldom seen — what they were doing: — and how did they 
obtain the means of subsistence. 'AYhat is become/ said 
he, < of the Prince ? I have heard that he has passed the 
Braes of Knoidart.' Even to this gentleman, whom habit 
had trained them to regard with the greatest respect, they 
would not disclose any of their secrets, merely remarking, 
that as the enemy were plundering the country, it were a 
pity not to share in the spoil ; and that they accordingly 
did so, and made a shift to live upon it. On their return 
to the Prince, they informed him of this interview, and 
said that, if his Royal Highness pleased, they would bi^ng* 
Glenmorriston to see him, he being a faithful and trusty 
friend. l The Prince said he was so well pleased with his 
present guard, that he wanted none other ; and that he had 
experienced poor folks to be as faithful and firm as any men, 
rich or high, could be.' 1 

1 Bishop Forbes's report of conversations with Patrick Grant. Some less 
authentic anecdotes of the Glenmorriston men have been circulated. It is 
stated that at the first introduction of the Prince to their fraternity, as they 
were sitting at dinner, one of them, with great tact, exclaimed, ' Ha, Dougal 
M'Cullony, I'm glad to see thee ! ' and welcomed him as an old acquaintance 
of his own order, being then uncertain if his rank could be safely confided to 
the rest. This story does not appear to be true, though it is certain that the 
men generally called the Prince by the name Dougal, for safety. It has also 
been stated that, to supply him with linen, they attacked some officers' ser- 
vants travelling behind a military detachment, killed one of them, and seiz- 
ing a portmanteau, brought it home to their cave. A still more questionable 
tale represents them as going in disguise to Fort- Augustus, and bringing back 
newspapers for the Prince. 

Another dubious tale, referring to nearly this period, may here be adverted 
to. A young man named Roderick Mackenzie, the son of a jeweller in Edin- 
burgh, and who had been in the Prince's Life-Guards, resembled him much 
in person. While skulking in the Braes of Glenmorriston, he was beset by a 
military party, and finding escape impossible, he assumed a bold air, faced 
the soldiers, and as they poured the shot into his body, exclaimed, ' Villains, 
you have killed your Prince !' The men, believing that they had secured the 
grand prize, cut off the head of the unfortunate youth, and brought it to 
Fort-Augustus, where we have already seen that application was made to 
Macdonald of Kingsburgh to ascertain if he thought he could distinguish the 
head of the Prince, detached from his body. It is said that the head was 
generally looked on as the head of the Prince, and that Duke William carried 
it to London along with him, in order to ascertain the fact with more preci- 
sion. One Richard Morison, who had been the Prince's valet, now lay a 
prisoner in Carlisle ; he was hastily summoned to London, and promised par- 
don on condition that he would truly declare if the head was that of his late 
master. Morison having fallen sick on his arrival, an interval ensued, during 
which the head became so putrid as to make recognition impossible, but 
Morison nevertheless secured his pardon. That there is some truth in this 
story we can scarcely doubt, yet it is suspiciously deficient in locality and 
date. I find that the Rev. Mr Forbes made inquiry respecting the circum- 
stances, but never could obtain any certain particulars. A lady, however, 
informs me that she remembers, when a child, visiting in their house at the 
head of Gray's Close in the High Street of Edinburgh, two old ladies who 



356 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

On the 19th, the man who was to bring* intelligence from 
Glengarry came back, reporting that that district was clear 
of troops. The Prince, therefore, with his party, now ten 
in number, set out in the afternoon, under the benefit of a 
fog, and passing through Glenmorriston and the minor 
vale of Glenluing, arrived late at night on the Braes of 
Glengarry. When they came to the Garry Water, it was 
found breast-deep with the rain ; nevertheless, they crossed 
it in safety, and ascending the hill for about a mile, tarried 
there for the remainder of the night in the open air, not- 
withstanding that it rained heavily. Early in the morn- 
ing (August 20), the heavy rain still continuing, they ad- 
vanced six Highland miles across hills and moors, and about 
ten in the forenoon came to the hill above Auchnasual, 
where the two messengers had been appointed to meet them 
on their return from Cameron of Clunes. They passed the 
day in a most inconvenient habitation, ' it raining as heavy 
within as without.' 1 Towards the afternoon, after they 
had begun to despair of the return of their messengers, and 
were deliberating what should be done, the two men came 
in, bringing a message from Clunes to Glenaladale, to the 
eifect that he could not wait upon him immediately, but 
had directed that the party should lodge for that night in 
a certain wood two miles off, where he would meet them in 
the morning. 

Two of the men, Patrick Grant and Alexander Macdon- 
nell, were now despatched to reconnoitre their proposed 
lodging-place, and finding it suitable, they quickly returned 
to bring forward the party. Their provisions were now 
reduced to half a peck of meal, and they had starvation 
staring them in the face. By the greatest good fortune, 
Patrick shot a large hart at the place where they were to 
pass the night; so that when the Prince and the rest 
arrived, they had one of the finest meals they had as yet 
enjoyed. 

They were this evening joined by Macdonnell of Loch- 
garry, who had been the commander of a regiment in the 
insurgent army ; and early next day, as appointed, Cameron 
of Clunes came to them : both of these gentlemen lived in 
concealment in the neighbouring mountains. By them the 

were understood to be the sisters of this Mackenzie, and who enjoyed a small 
pension on that account. The effects of the incident in allaying the heat of 
the search for the Prince have obviously been much exaggerated ; for it is 
within the ten days after the duke's departure from Fort-Augustus, that we 
find the exertions made to capture him in Arisaig by means of the chain of 
posts. 
1 Glenaladale's Journal. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 357 

Prince was conducted that afternoon (August 21) to a wood 
at the foot of Loch Arkaig, where he and his party lay that 
night. Here the Glenmorriston men left him, and returned 
to their own glen, all except Patrick Grant, who stayed 
behind, that the Prince might be enabled, when he should 
get a supply of money, to make, through him, a pecuniary 
acknowledgment of the services of the fraternity. Grant 
accordingly waited for some days, and ultimately carried 
home with him twenty-four guineas, being at the rate of 
three guineas for each man. 1 

1 The public may be anxious to know the subsequent history of these men. 
How long they kept together, or pursued their wild mode of life, I have not 
ascertained : probably it was not later than July 1747, when the act of indem- 
nity permitted all the less distinguished rebels to show their faces once more 
in society. In 1751, Grant informed Mr Forbes that Alexander Macdonnell 
and Alexander Chisholm were then dead. Gregor Macgregor was taken some 
time after ' the troubles,' and imprisoned in Inverness, but had the good for- 
tune to make his escape, and in 1751 was ' alive and in good health, and as 
ready for a good ploy as ever.' The attack upon the soldiers and seizure of 
the cattle having excited much notice, Chisholm of Strathglass, on whose 
ground it had taken place, was incited to attempt to capture the Glenmor- 
riston men, who were suspected of being the actors in that strange adven- 
ture ; and accordingly, in November 1746, John Macdonald was taken in his 
bed, and carried to Inverness. He was kept there for many months, but at 
length liberated, there being no evidence against him, and the act of indem- 
nity being then passed. 

Patrick Grant, when Mr Forbes saw him in 1751, had come from the High- 
lands in a state of poverty, and ignorant of English, but determined on going 
abroad, and seeking out the Prince. ' If he be on the face of the earth,' said 
he, ' I'll find him out, and, meet when we will, he and I shall never part 
again.' It was with great difficulty that some rational people, into whose 
hands he fell, prevailed on him to give up this mad project. While lingering 
in Edinburgh, he fell into company with the same Donald Fraser who had 
acted as a messenger between the officers and the Glenmorriston men. Fraser 
reminded him jocularly that on that occasion Grant had taken from him a 
quarter of a pound of tobacco, which, he said, Patrick should now replace 
or pay. * What ! ' said Patrick, ' repay you that ! No ; you were an enemy 
then, and the tobacco was lawful spoil ; I will never pay you for that.' The 
company, all of them Jacobites, enjoyed this conversation very much. Patrick 
Grant was pressed into the army in 1759, and served in North America. At 
the peace of 1763, he returned to Glenmorriston with a Chelsea pension. 

John Macdonnell, who had been one of the leaders of the outlawed frater- 
nity, and whom the Prince had supposed to be called Os Ean, lived for many 
years after in the Braes of Glenmorriston. In May 1754, ' John Macewan 
Vic-William, alias Macdonnell, some time residenter in Ballado in Glenmor- 
riston,' was sentenced at Inverary to be hanged for theft and robbery ; which 
sentence was carried into effect at Inverlocby on the 31st of the month.* This 
man, on being apprehended, had given himself out as one of the Glenmor- 
riston men who had protected the Prince, thinking that the identity of his 
name and locality would favour the imposture, and that the imposture would 
operate in his favour, in the event of his being brought to trial. It had, in 
reality, that effect, for many gentlemen in the Highlands exerted themselves, 
after his condemnation, to save his life. The rumour thenceforth became 
general in the north of Scotland that one of the Glenmorriston men, who 
had scorned the bribe of £30,000, was hanged for stealing a cow ! The tale 



* Scots Magazine, 1754, p. 202. 






358 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Charles now once more turned his thoughts to Cluny 
and Locheil, who, he understood, were living in a compa- 

has often been repeated, and lastly in the * Tales of a Grandfather,' published 
in 1830 — so difficult is it to overtake any false allegation with a contradiction. 
The real state of the case, as above stated, appears in Mr Forbes's papers, 
being the result of a conversation in 1756 with Patrick Grant. It is added 
in the same place, that the real John Macdonnell was a Campbell, who, on 
removing to the property of Macdonnell of Glengarry, had, as was customary, 
taken the name of that chief. John was supported for some years by Mr 
Macdonald of Glenaladale ; but at the death of that gentleman, he fell into 
poverty. 

In 1762, we find Mr Macnab of Inchewen making an endeavour to raise 
some money amongst his Jacobite friends for John, whom he represents as 
then above sixty years of age, unable to work, and burdened with a sickly 
wife and a young family. Of the condition of the man at that time, we have 
an affecting picture in the following letter addressed by a Mr Mackenzie, 
teacher in Tain, to Mr Forbes : — ' I happened to be two weeks ago in Strath- 
glass, at the young Chisholm's house, and on the 25th ult., as I was walking 
alone by the river's side, I met an aged man, who saluted me, as is ordinary 
in the Highlands, and asked if I had snuff; which I answered by giving him 
my box, which introduced a parley. I inquired whence and who he was. 
He answered from Glenmorriston, and that his name is John Maccoilvee 
Eandue, or, if I pleased, John Macdonnell. I inquired if he knew Patrick 
Grant. He said very well, and that he had shared in the cause of Patrick's 

reputation ; that he frequently attended, summa fide, his R 1 Master, 

ministering sometimes to his relief, and that the P e called him often by 

the name of Os Ean. I told him, if he could find good credentials for what 
he advanced, his fidelity at the critical juncture might yet avail him. He 
declared that Patrick Grant and others of repute could vouch for what he 
asserted ; that he was now reduced to great want. He had one of his sons, 
a pretty boy, with him, seeking service for him, having kept him a little 
time at a charity school. After giving him a mite to buy his supper, we bade 
good night.' It appears that more than one sum of five pounds was raised in 
the south, and sent to this poor man, whose history is ultimately summed 
up in the following passage of a letter by Bishop Forbes, dated June 8, 1775 : 
— ' Poor Os Ean, upon failing of his usual moiety, joined the emigrants in 
August last, to seek a grave in a foreign land, where his merit is not known, 
and would be little regarded.' 

Hugh Chisholm long survived this period. He was in Edinburgh for a 
considerable time between the years' 1780 and 1790, and gave some account of 
the Prince's adventures with the Glenmorriston men to Mr Home. At this 
time he fell under the notice of Sir Walter Scott, who gives the following 
particulars respecting him in the * Tales of a Grandfather :' — ' Another, by 
name Hugh Chisholm, resided in Edinburgh, and was well known to your 
grandfather, then a young man at college, who subscribed with others to a 
small annuity, which was sufficient to render him comfortable. He returned 
to his native country, and died in Strathglass some time subsequent to 1812. 
He was a noble commanding figure, of six feet and upwards ; had a very 
stately demeanour, and always wore the Highland garb. The author often 
questioned him about this remarkable period of his life. He always spoke as 
a high-minded man, who thought he had done no more than his duty, but 
was happy that it had fallen to his individual lot to discharge it. . . . Hugh 
had some particular notions and customs. He kept his right hand usually 
in his bosom, as if worthy of more care than the rest of his person, because 
Charles Edward had shaken hands with him when they separated. AVhen 
he received his little dole (I am ashamed of the small amount, but I had 
not much to give), which he always did with the dignity of one collecting 
tribute rather than receiving alms, he extended his left hand with great cour- 
tesy, making an excuse for not offering the other, " that it was sick." But 
the true reason was. that he would not contaminate with a meaner touch 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 359 

ratively agreeable concealment in Badenoch, far to the 
south of the Great Glen of Albyn — that profound valley, 
filled with a chain of lakes and rivers, which has since 
become the bed of the Caledonian Canal. Chines, however, 
informed him that it would not be safe for him to attempt 
to cross this water-pervaded g'len, as every isthmus and 
ferry along* its whole extent was guarded by the military. 
It was judged prudent that he should remain for the pre- 
sent near Loch Arkaig, and only send a messenger to apprise 
Locheil where he was, and to request him, if possible, to 
join him in his present retreat. One John Macpherson, or 
Maccoilveen, a tenant of Locheil, was accordingly engaged, 
and sent on this errand. 

Locheil had about the same time learned that Charles 
was on the mainland, and not far to the north of the Great 
Glen, and from his fastness in Badenoch he sent his brothers, 
Dr Archibald and the Rev. John Cameron, by different 
roads, to obtain information respecting him. The doctor 
had not travelled far when he met Maccoilveen, whom he 
eagerly questioned, but in vain. The faithful Highlander 
having been ordered to say not a word of the Prince to any 
but Locheil, would tell nothing but that he was going to 
that chief with intelligence of great consequence. Dr 
Cameron about the same time met with the two French 
officers who had landed in June from a vessel at Pollew, 
and had since then been wandering about in quest of the 
Prince. They had come from Dunkirk, with sixty other 
young men, who, with the gallantry of their nation, had 
formed themselves into a company of volunteers for the 
purpose of rescuing the commander of an enterprise which 
had excited their admiration. Four officers had landed, 
but two were immediately taken, and of these two, one 
named Fitzgerald was hanged at Fort -William, on the 
charge of having been a spy in Flanders. After the other 
two had wandered for some time about Seaforth's country, 

the hand that had "been grasped by his rightful Prince. If pressed on this 
topic, or offered money to employ the right hand, he would answer with pas- 
sion that, if your hand were full of gold, and he might he owner of it all for 
touching it with his right hand, he would not comply with your request. He 
remained to the last day of his life a believer in the restoration of the Stuart 
family in the person of Charles Edward, as the Jews confide in the advent of 
the Messiah ; nor could he ever be convinced of the death of his favourite 
Prince. A scheme, he helieved, was formed by which every fifth man in 
the Highlands was to rise — if that numher was insufficient, every third man 
was to be called—" if that be not enough," said the old man, raising himself 
and waving his hand, " we will all gather and go together." Such delusions 
amused his last years, hut when I knew him he was perfectly sane in his 
intellects.' 



360 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Lochgarry, hearing* that they had letters for the Prince, 
sent Captain Macraw and his own servant for them, that 
they might be sent to Locheil, since the Prince was not to 
be found. It seems to have been in consequence of what 
Lochgarry did, that they were now on their way to visit 
Locheil ; though how two such men could travel unharmed 
through such a country, it seems difficult to account for. 

Br Cameron, with the two officers and the Prince's mes- 
senger, returned to Locheil. The two gentlemen told the 
chief that they had left their papers with Mr Alexander 
Macleod, one of the Prince's aides-de-camp, whom they 
had met in Seaforth's country — a story which proved quite 
true, but which now only raised a suspicion of their being 
spies in the mind of Locheil, more particularly as they had 
not mentioned any such thing to Lochgarry. Locheil com- 
mitted them to the charge of a friend near by, that they 
might wait for further orders. 1 

Dr Cameron once more set out in quest of the Prince, 
and at Auchnacarry, the ruined seat of his family, he met 
his brother, the Rev. John Cameron, who had gone before, 
by a different way, on the same errand. The two joined, 
and, attended by four servants, set out in a boat along Loch 
Arkaig. The Prince at this time lived in a small hut, which 
had been built for his accommodation in the wood betwixt 
Auchnasual and the end of Loch Arkaig. The two gentle- 
men, seeing some men in arms by the water-side, sent two 
of Clunes's children to learn who they were, and finding 
they belonged to Clunes, sent the boat for them. When 
they came, the two gentlemen dismissed their own servants, 
under the pretence that they were going* to skulk for a few 
days in the wood, and feared lest a retinue should attract 
observation. They then crossed the river, and proceeded 
towards the hut in which they were informed the Prince 
resided. According to one account, Clunes joined their 
party as they were proceeding. 

The approach of this party was the cause of a dreadful 
alarm to Prince Charles. He was at this time asleep, with 
one of Clunes's sons, while Patrick Grant kept watch. 
Patrick, usually so prompt and trusty, nodded at his post, 
and did not observe the approaching party till it was near 
at hand. Conceiving them to be a party of militia, he 
roused the Prince, to whom he proposed that they should 
instantly fly to the mountains. Charles refused to do this, 

1 For these facts, and for the materials of this part of the narrative gene- 
rally, I ana indebted to a journal by the Rev. John Cameron, transcribed in 
the Lyon in Mourning. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 361 

and said it was much the safer course to remain in ambus- 
cade, tire at the men when they came near, and take their 
chance for the rest. He and Grant, with young Cameron, 
therefore laid their pieces along 1 the stones, and were pre- 
paring to fire, when, recognising the figure of Chines, they 
became aware that there was no danger. Alarm was suc- 
ceeded by great joy when Charles received two brothers of 
his beloved Locheil, and learned that that chief, though 
not yet quite cured of the wounds in his ankles, was in 
good health. He thrice audibly thanked God for the wel- 
fare of his friend. John Cameron describes his appearance 
and manners. 6 He was barefooted, had an old black kilt 
coat on, philabeg, and waistcoat, a dirty shirt, and a long- 
red beard, a gun in his hand, a pistol and dirk by his side. 
He was very cheerful, and in good health, and, in my 
opinion, fatter than when he was at Inverness. They had 
killed a cow the day before, and the servants were roasting 
some of it with spits. The Prince knew their names, spoke 
in a familiar way to them, and some Erse. He ate very 
heartily of the roasted beef and some bread we had from 
Fort-Augustus, and no man could sleep sounder in the night 
than he. ? 

Next day (August 26) the party removed to a wood called 
Torvuilt, near Auchnacany. Here Charles now expressed 
a wish to cross the Great Glen and join Locheil ; but this 
measure was considered premature by his attendants, on 
account of a statement having recently appeared in the 
newspapers that he had gone over Corryarrack with Locheil 
and thirty men, which would undoubtedly occasion a vigi- 
lant search in those parts. He was advised to remain where 
he was, as in all probability the attention of the troops 
would be withdrawn from the north of the Great Glen, 
while it was directed with proportionate closeness to the 
south. In the meantime, Dr Cameron ventured into Lochaber 
to procure intelligence, and Lochgarry posted himself upon 
the isthmus betwixt the east end of Loch Lochy and the 
west end of Loch Linnhe, to watch the motions of the troops. 
The Prince at the same time despatched his faithful atten- 
dant Glenaladale, who had shared every privation with him 
for a month past, to await the arrival of any French vessels 
on the west coast, and to apprise him of such an event 
whenever it should take place. 

Charles remained for some days in the neighbourhood of 
Auchnacarry. Having heard from Archibald and John 
Cameron of the two French officers having had an inter- 
view with Locheil, he expressed a strong wish to see them ; 



362 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

but John Cameron represented the suspicions entertained of 
them by his brother, and recommended caution. The Prince 
agreed that caution was necessary. It was surprising*, he 
said, that two men, strangers, without one word of Erse, 
could escape from the troops, who were always in motion in 
quest of himself and his followers. Yet, as they might be 
true men, and have something of importance to commu- 
nicate, he thought it proper that he should see them, only 
taking care that, if treacherous, they should have no advan- 
tage over him. He therefore penned a letter to them, stat- 
ing that he had retired to a remote country, where he had 
none in his company but one Captain Drummond and a 
servant ; as he could not come to see them without danger, 
he had sent Drummond, to whom, he said, they might 
communicate whatever they had to say to himself. The 
officers were then sent for, and brought to a place near his 
retreat. He went himself, as Captain Drummond, and 
delivered the letter. They had previously informed Locheil 
that they had never seen the Prince, and they now seemed 
to confirm the truth of what they had said, by not appear- 
ing to recognise him under the assumed character. They 
communicated to him all their intelligence, which, however, 
was of little importance to him in his present situation. 
They asked many questions regarding the Prince's manner 
of living, and heard his answers with great surprise. After 
staying two days, they returned to Locheil. Charles after- 
wards sent to Mr Macleod for their papers, but found them 
to be of no use, being in cipher, addressed to the French 
ambassador, and unintelligible for want of the key. 

Towards the end of August, they were disturbed in their 
retreat at Auchnacarry by intelligence of the approach of a 
large military party. This proved to be a detachment of 
two hundred men, which had been sent from Fort- Augustus, 
under the command of Captain Grant of Knock ando, in 
consequence of intelligence that the Prince was skulking in 
that district. Charles was that day in a hut near the water 
of Kiaig, a mile from Clunes. It was eight in the morning 
when Mr John Cameron, who had fortunately gone out for 
intelligence, returned to give the alarm. ' I wakened the 
Prince,' says he, i and desired him not to be surprised, for 
that a body of the enemy was in sight. He, with the 
utmost composure, got up, called for his gun, sent for Cap- 
tain Macraw, and Sandy, Clunes's son, who, with a servant, 
were doing duty as sentries about the wood.' The party 
mustered eight, and all made the resolution, if escape was 
impossible, to die fighting bravely with their arms in their 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 363 

hands. They were fortunately able to get to the top of the 
mountain unobserved, by the cover of the wood. That 
night they travelled to another hill called Mullantagart, 
which is prodigiously steep, high, and craggy. On the 
top of that eminence they remained all day without a morsel 
of food. In the evening one of Clunes's sons came, and 
told them that his father would meet them at a certain 
place in the hills somewhat distant with provisions. Charles 
set out for this spot, which was only to be reached by the 
most difficult paths. Toiling along amongst rocks and 
stumps of trees, which tore their clothes and limbs, they at 
length proposed to halt and rest all night. But Charles, 
though the most exhausted of the party, insisted upon keep- 
ing their appointment with Clunes. After proceeding some 
way farther, Charles had to acknowledge himself utterly 
incapable of further exertion, when the generous High- 
landers took hold of his arms and supported him along, 
though themselves tottering under their unparalleled fatigue. 
Almost perishing with hunger, and sinking under the dread- 
ful exertions of the night, they at last reached their desti- 
nation ; where, to their great relief, they found Clunes and 
his son, with a cow which they had killed and partly dressed. 
Here they remained for a day or two, till Lochgarry and 
Dr Cameron arrived with the welcome intelligence that the 
passes were not now so strictly guarded, and that the Prince 
might safely venture at least a stage nearer to Locheil. 

The Prince now crossed Loch Arkaig, and was conducted 
to a fastness in the fir-wood of Auchnacarry belonging to 
Locheil. Here he received a message from that chieftain 
and Macpherson of Cluny, informing him of their retreat 
in Badenoch, and that the latter gentleman would meet 
him on a certain day at the place where he was, in order 
to conduct him to their habitation, which they judged the 
safest place for him. Impatient to see these dear friends, 
he would not wait for the arrival of Cluny at Auchnacarry, 
but set out for Badenoch immediately, trusting to meet the 
coming chief by the way, and take him back. Of the jour- 
ney into Badenoch, a long* and dangerous one, no parti- 
culars have been preserved, excepting that, as the Prince 
was entering the district, he received from Mr Macdonald 
of Tullochcroam (a place on the side of Loch Laggan) a 
coarse brown short coat, a shirt, and a pair of shoes — articles 
of which he stood in great need. 1 It was on this occasion, 
and to this gentleman, that he said he had come to know 

1 Lyon in Mourning, MS., viii. 1828. 



364 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

what a quarter of a peck of meal was, as lie had once lived 
on such a quantity for nearly a week. He arrived in Bade- 
noch on the 29th of August, and spent the first night at a 
place called Corineuir, at the foot of the great mountain 
Benalder. This is a point considerably to the east of any 
district he had as yet haunted. On the opposite side of 
Benalder, Loch Ericht divides Badenoch from Athole. It 
is one of the roughest and wildest parts of the Highlands, 
and therefore little apt to be intruded upon, although the 
great road between Edinburgh and Inverness passes at the 
distance of a few miles. The country was destitute of wood ; 
but it made up for this deficiency as a place of concealment 
by the rockiness of its hills and glens. The country was 
part of the estate of Macpherson of Cluny, and was used 
in summer for grazing his cattle ; but it was considered as 
the remotest of his grassings. 

Cluny and Locheil, who were cousins-german, and much 
attached to each other, had lived here in sequestered huts 
or sheilings for several months with various friends, and 
attended by servants, being chiefly supplied with provisions 
by Macpherson younger of Breakachie, who was married 
to a sister of Cluny. 1 Their residence in the district was 
known to many persons, whose fidelity, however, was such, 
that the Earl of Loudoun, who had a military post at 
Sherowmore, not many miles distant, never all the time 
had the slightest knowledge or suspicion of the fact. The 
Highlanders did, indeed, during this summer exemplify 
the virtue of secrecy in an extraordinary manner. Many of 

1 After the breaking up of the scheme of resistance in May, and the 
occupation of Lochaber by the troops, Locheil was very anxious to get into 
Badenoch, ' not only,' says Mr Forbes, reporting the conversation of young 
Breakachie, ' for ease and safety to his own person, but likewise because he 
was not able to stand the melancholy accounts that were ever reaching his 
ears about the cruelties and severities committed by the military upon the 
people round about him in Lochaber. And even when Locheil was in Bade- 
noch, such moving narratives were told him of the sufferings of his own people 
and others in Lochaber, as bore very hard upon him. One day, when accounts 
were brought to Locheil in Badenoch that the poor people in Lochaber had 
been so pillaged and harassed that they had not really necessaries to keep in 
their lives, Locheil took out his purse and gave all the money he could well 
spare to be distributed among such in Lochaber. " And," said Breakachie, " I 
remember nothing better than that Sir Stewart Threipland at that time took 
out his purse and gave five guineas, expressing himself in these words ; I am 
sure (said Sir Stewart) I have not so much to myself ; but then, if I be spared, 
I know where to get more, whereas these poor people know not where to get 
the smallest assistance.'" — Lyon in Mourning, vii. 1480. 

The conversation, of which the above is a part, occurred in February 1750. 
Breakachie then assured Mr Forbes that he believed the Clan Cameron must 
have lost in all about three hundred men in the affair of 1745-6, having suf- 
fered considerably in all the three battles, as well as in the outrages com- 
mitted by the military after Culloden. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 365 

the principal persons concerned in the insurrection had been 
concealed and supported ever since Culloden in those very 
districts which were the most thoroughly beset with troops, 
and which had been most ravaged and plundered. After 
the escape of the Prince through the cordon between Loch 
Hourn and Loch Shiel in the latter part of July, the mili- 
tary powers at Fort- Augustus seem to have scarcely ever 
got a ray of genuine intelligence respecting his motions. 
His friends, all except the very few who attended him, were 
equally at a loss to imagine where he was, or how he con- 
trived to keep himself concealed. His enemies i sometimes 
thought he had got himself removed to the east coast 
through the hills of Athole, and laid an embargo upon all 
the shipping from that quarter. At other times they had 
information that he lurked in the shires of Angus or 
Mearns, and a search was made for him in the most sus- 
pected places of those shires ; and particularly the house of 
Mr Barclay of Urie in Mearns, whose lady was aunt to 
Locheil by the father, and to Cluny by the mother, was 
most narrowly searched ; while he was quite safe and uncon- 
cerned in Benalder.' 1 

Next day, August 30, Charles was conducted to a place 
called Mellaneuir, also on Benalder, where Locheil was 
now living in a small hut with Macpherson younger of 
Breakachie, his principal servant Allan Cameron, and two 
servants of Cluny. When Locheil saw five men approach- 
ing under arms — namely, the Prince, Lochgarry, Dr Ar- 
chibald Cameron, and two servants — he imagined that they 
must be a military party, who, learning his retreat, had 
come to seize him. It was in vain to think of flying*, even 
though the supposed military party had been more nume- 
rous, for he was still a cripple, in consequence of the wounds 
in his ankles. He therefore resolved to defend himself as 
well as circumstances would permit. Twelve firelocks and 
some pistols were prepared; the chief and his four com- 
panions had taken up positions, and levelled each his piece, 
and all was ready for saluting the approaching party with 
a carefully-aimed volley, when Locheil distinguished the 
figures of his friends. Then, hobbling out as well as he 
could, he received the Prince with an enthusiastic welcome, 
and attempted to pay his duty to him on his knees. This 
ceremony Charles forbade : ' My dear Locheil/ said he, 
1 you don't know who may be looking from the tops of 
yonder hills ; if any be there, and if they see such motions, 

1 Narrative written by Donald Macpherson, youngest brother of Cluny ; 
preserved in Rev. Mr Forbes's collections, MS., in my possession. 



366 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

they will conclude that I am here; which may prove of 
bad consequence. 7 Locheil then ushered him into his hovel, 
which, though small, was well furnished with viands and 
liquors. Young Breakachie had helped his friends to a 
sufficiency of newly-killed mutton, some cured beef sausages, 
plenty of butter and cheese, a large well-cured bacon ham, 
and an anker of whisky. The Prince, ' upon his entry, 
took a hearty dram, which he pretty often called for there- 
after, to drink his friends' healths ; and when there were 
some minced collops dressed with butter for him in a large 
saucepan that Locheil and Cluny carried always about with 
them, and which was the only fire-vessel they had, he ate 
heartily, and said, with a very cheerful and lively coun- 
tenance, " Now, gentlemen, I live like a prince," though at 
the same time he was no otherwise served than by eating 
the collops out of the saucepan, only that he had a silver 
spoon. After dinner, he asked Locheil if he had still lived, 
during his skulking in that place, in such a good way ; to 
which Locheil answered, " Yes, sir, I have, for now near 
three months that I have been here with my cousin Cluny 
and Breakachie, who has so provided for me, that I have 
still had plenty of such as you see, and I thank Heaven 
that your Royal Highness has come safe througb so many 
dangers to take a part." ' 

Cluny, on reaching Auchnacarry, and finding Charles 
gone, immediately returned to Badenoch, and he arrived 
at Mellaneuir two days after the Prince. On entering the 
hut, he would have knelt ; but Charles prevented him, and 
taking him in his arms, kissed him affectionately. He soon 
after said, i I'm sorry, Cluny, that you and your regiment 
were not at Culloden ; I did not hear till lately that you 
were so near us that day.' 

Cluny, finding that the Prince had not a change of linen, 
caused his three sisters 1 to set about making some shirts for 
him. They did so with good will, and soon furnished him 
with what was wanted. The gentlemen whom Charles here 
met for the first time in his wanderings were, like all those 
he had met previously, astonished at the elasticity of mind 
which he displayed in circumstances of so much discomfort 
and danger, and under prospects, to say the least of them, 
so much less brilliant than what had 'recently been before 
him. 2 

1 Isabel, widow of Mackintosh of Aberardar ; Christian, wife of Breakachie ; 
and Anne, then unmarried, but afterwards the wife of Macpherson of Dal- 
rady. 

2 The Rev. Mr Forbes appears to have taken down the following anecdote, 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 367 

The day after Cluny's arrival, it was thought expedient 
that there should be a change of quarters. They therefore 
removed two Highland miles farther into the recesses of 
Benalder, to a shelling called Uiskchilra, c superlatively bad 
and smoky/ as Donald Macpherson has described it, but 
which the Prince never once complained of. It may here 
be remarked, that the precautions which Locheil and Cluny 
had formerly taken for their safety, were much increased 
after the Prince had joined them. Breakachie had formerly 
been intrusted with the power of bringing any one to them 
in whom he could trust ; but no one was now introduced 
till after a council had been held, and formal permission 
given. Trusty watchmen were planted on the neighbour- 
ing hills, to give notice of the approach of any strangers or 
military; and Cluny even contrived to have spies in the 
Earl of Loudoun's camp. 

After spending two or three uncomfortable days in the 
smoky sheiling, they removed to ' a very romantic and 
comical habitation, made by Cluny, at two miles' farther 
distance into Benalder, called the Cage. It was really a 
curiosity,' saj-s Donald Macpherson, ' and can scarcely be 
described to perfection. It was situate in the face of a very 
rough, high, rocky mountain called Letternilichk, which is 
still a part of Benalder, full of great stones and crevices, 

illustrative of the cheerfulness of the Prince under his distresses, from the 
mouth of Captain O'Neal, while a prisoner in Edinburgh castle, July 1747. 

' O'Neal frankly owned that, in place of his being useful to the Prince, by 
endeavouring to comfort and support him when dangers thickened upon 
them, the Prince had the like good offices to perform to him, and that he 
frequently exerted himself, in different shapes, to raise his spirits. One time, 
having nothing to eat for about two days but some mouldy dirty crumbs in 
O'Neal's pocket, they luckily happened at last to come to a very mean cot- 
tage, where they found only an old poor woman, who received them kindly, 
and gave each of them two eggs and a piece of bear-bannock, but having not 
so much in her hut as a cup of cold water to give them to put down their 
morsel, she told them that some lasses had lately gone up the hill to milk 
the goats, &rc. and that, if they would follow them, probably they might 
have a drink of milk from them. The advice was very seasonable, and away 
they went, the honest old woman directing them the way they should go. 
The Prince skipped so speedily up the hill, that O'Neal could not keep up 
with him. The lasses gave them plenty of milk, and poor O'Neal lay along 
upon the grass, being quite undone with fatigue and fear. The Prince did all 
he could to rouse him up, but all to no purpose. At last the Prince, turning 
from him, said, " Come, my lasses, what would you think to dance a High- 
land reel with me ? We cannot have a bagpipe just now, but I shall sing you 
a strathspey reel ! " The dance went merrily on, and the Prince skipped so 
nimbly, knacking his thumbs and clapping his hands, that O'Neal was soon 
surprised out of his thoughtful mood, being ashamed to remain any longer in 
the dumps when his Prince had been at so much pains to divert his melan- 
choly. He was sure, he said, that the Prince entered into this frolic merely 
on his account, for that there could be no danctng at his heart, seeing at that 
time they knew not where to move one foot.'— Lyon in Mourning, MS. i. 191. 



368 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

and some scattered wood interspersed. The habitation called 
the Cage, in the face of that mountain, was within a small 
thick hush of wood. There were first some rows of trees 
laid down, in order to level a floor for the habitation, and 
as the place was steep, this raised the lower side to equal 
height with the other, and these trees, in the way of joists 
or planks, were entirely well levelled with earth and gravel. 
There were betwixt the trees, growing* naturally on their 
own roots, some stakes fixed in the earth, which, with the 
trees, were interwoven with ropes made of heath and birch 
twigs all to the top of the Cage, it being of a round, or 
rather oval shape, and the whole thatched and covered over 
with fog. This whole fabric hung, as it were, by a large 
tree which reclined from the one end all along the roof to 
the other, and which gave it the name of the Cage ; and 
by chance there happened to be two stones, at a small dis- 
tance from [each] other, next the precipice, resembling the 
pillars of a bosom chimney, and here was the fire placed. 
The smoke had its vent out there, all along a very stony 
part of the rock, which and the smoke were so much of a 
colour, that no one could have distinguished the one from 
the other in the clearest day. The Cage was only large 
enough to contain six or seven persons, four of which 
number were frequently employed in playing at cards, one 
idle looking on, one baking, and another firing bread and 
cooking.' x 

The hopes of the Prince for an escape from the country 
were still resting in the prospect of the arrival of some 
French vessel in the lonely estuaries of the west coast of 
Inverness-shire. He knew that Colonel Warren was exert- 
ing himself to fit out a small armament for this purpose ; 
but still many accidents might occur to mar the consumma- 
tion of the design. It would appear that two other plans 
were formed for getting him shipped away from Scotland. 
The Rev. John Cameron was despatched by his brother to 
Edinburgh, there to exert himself to get a vessel hired, to 
come to some appointed station on the east coast, and there 
lie in readiness to take the party on board. Such a vessel 
actually was provided; it went to the station; and Mr 

1 * All about his Royal Highness, during his abode in Benalder of Badenoch, 
were Locheil, Cluny, Lochgarry, Dr Cameron, and Breakachie, one Allan 
Cameron, a young genteel lad of Calard's family, who was principal servant 
to Locheil, and four servants belonging to Cluny, particularly James Mac- 
pherson, his piper, Paul Macpherson, his horse-keeper. Murdoch and Duncan 
Macphersons. This Murdoch the Prince generally called Murick, who, and 
Paul, could speak no English, and were commonly employed in carrying 
provisions from Breakachie.'— Donald Macpherson's Narrative, MS. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 369 

Cameron returned to Benalder to bring away the party, but 
found them gone. 1 Breakachie was also sent from Uisk- 
chilra to find out John Roy Stuart, who was skulking* some- 
where in the country, with orders to go in company with 
John directly to the east coast, and there hire a vessel. Lest 
both schemes should fail, and the Prince be obliged to spend 
the winter in the Highlands, Cluny, who seems to have had 
a constructive genius, fitted up a subterranean retreat, 
boarded thickly all round, and otherwise provided against 
the severity of the season. But all of these precautions, 
though wisely taken, proved useless, in consequence of the 
arrival of Colonel Warren's expedition. 

Two vessels of force, L'Hereux and La Princesse de Conti, 
had been fitted out by the exertions of this gentleman, who 
was promised a baronetcy by the old chevalier in the event 
of his bringing off the Prince. Setting sail from St Maloes 
in the latter part of August, they arrived in Lochnanuagh 
on the 6th of September. Next day four gentlemen, in- 
cluding Captain Sheridan, son of Sir Thomas, and a Mr 
O'Beirne, a lieutenant in the French service, landed to 
make inquiry about the Prince, and were received by Mac- 
donald of Glenaladale, who had taken his station in that 
part of the country for the purpose of communicating- to 
Charles any intelligence of the arrival of French vessels. 
He now lost no time in setting out to the neighbourhood of 
Auchnacarry, expecting there to find Cameron of Clunes, 
who was appointed to be a medium for forwarding the in- 
telligence to the Prince wherever he might then be. When 
Glenaladale arrived at the place where he expected to see 
Clunes, he found that gentleman removed he knew not 
whither, in consequence of some alarm from the military, 
who had destroyed^ his hut. Being himself altogether ig*- 
norant of Charles's present hiding-place, Glenaladale was 
thrown by this accident into a state of great perplexity and 
distress, for he reflected that, if the Prince did not quickly 
come to Lochnanuagh, the vessels might be obliged to sail 
without him. He was wandering about in this state of 
mind when he encountered an old woman, who chanced to 
know the place to which Clunes had withdrawn. Having 
obtained from her this information, he immediately com- 
municated with Clunes, who instantly despatched the faith- 
ful Maccoilveen to convey the intelligence to Cluny, that it 

1 This gentleman, "being now left to shift for himself, made his way hack 
to Edinburgh in disguise, and at last got off in the same coach with Lady 
Locheil and her children for London, on which occasion the lady passed for 
a Mrs Campbell. They all got safely to France. 
VOL. V. X 






370 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

might be by him imparted to the Prince. Glenaladale then 
returned to inform the French officers that they might ex- 
pect ere long to be joined by the royal wanderer. 

Charles, meanwhile, had despatched Cluny and Dr Came- 
ron on some private business to Loch Arkaig. Travelling 
in a very dark night through the outskirts of Badenoch, 
these two gentlemen, by great good fortune, met and recog- 
nised Maccoilveen, as he was proceeding with his message. 
Had they missed him, they would have gone on to Loch 
Arkaig, and as Maccoilveen would have communicated 
with none but Cluny, it would not have been till after their 
return, and probably then too late, that Charles would have 
heard of the arrival of the vessels. It thus appears that he 
was favoured by two remarkable chances in obtaining this 
important information, without either of which the design 
of his embarkation would have probably been defeated. 

Cluny, though he now turned back with Dr Cameron, 
was so anxious to forward the good news to the Prince, that 
he immediately procured a trusty man, one Alexander Mac- 
pherson, son of Benjamin Macpherson in Gallovie, to run 
express with it to the Cage. He and Cameron arrived there 
about one in the morning, September 13th, when they found 
the Prince already prepared to start on his journey. They 
immediately started, and before daylight, had reached their 
former habitation in Uiskchilra. 

From the place where he met Maccoilveen, Cluny had also 
sent off a messenger, one Murdoch Macpherson, a near re- 
lation of Macpherson of Invereshie, to stop young Break- 
achie on his mission to the east coast, and to desire him to 
return to the Prince's quarters. ' The said Murdoch came 
to Breakachie when going to bed ; x and then Breakachie's 
lady, one of Cluny's sisters, finding out the matter, began 
to talk of her dismal situation, of having so many children, 
and being then big with child. Upon which Breakachie 
said, " I put no value upon you or your bairns, unless you 
can bring me forth immediately thirty thousand men in 
arms ready to serve my master ! " 

' Instantly Breakachie set out on his return to the Prince, 
and took along with him John Boy Stuart (whom the 
Prince used to call the Body), but did not allow John 
Roy to know that the Prince was in Badenoch, but only 
that they were going to see Locheil, &c. When the Prince 
heard that Breakachie and John Roy Stuart were coming 

1 The original language of the narrative by Donald Macpherson (Lyon in 
Mourning, vii.) is here used. 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 371 

near the hut Uiskchilra, he wrapped himself up in a plaid 
and lay down, in order to surprise John Roy the more 
when he should enter the hut. In the door of the hut there 
was a pool or puddle, and when John Roy Stuart just was 
entering-, the Prince peeped out of the plaid, which so 
surprised John Roy, that he cried out, "Oh Lord! my 
master ! n and fell down in the puddle in a faint. 

6 Breakachie likewise brought along* with him to Uisk- 
chilra three fusees, one mounted with gold, a second with 
silver, and the third half - mounted, all belonging" to the 
Prince himself, who had desired Breakachie to fetch him 
these pieces at some convenient time. AVhen the Prince 
saw the fusees, he expressed great joy, saying*, " It is remark- 
able that my enemies have not discovered one farthing of my 
money, a rag of my clothes, or one piece of my arms ; " an 
event which the Prince himself did not know till he came 
to Benalder, where he was particularly informed that all 
the above things were still preserved from the hands of his 
enemies. 

6 The Prince (as is already observed) arrived at his old 
quarters in Uiskchilra, in his way to the ships, against 
daylight, on the morning of September 13th, where he 
remained till near night, and then set off, and was by day- 
light, the 14th, at Corvoy, where he slept some time. Upon 
his being refreshed with sleep, he, being at a sufficient dis- 
tance from any country, 1 did spend the day by diverting 
himself and his company with throwing up of bonnets in 
the air, and shooting at them, to try the three foresaid 
favourite fusees, and to try who was the best marksman ; 
in which diversion his Royal Highness by far exceeded. 
In the evening of the 14th he set forward, and went on as 
far as Uisknifichit, on the confines of Glenroy, which 
marches with a part of the Braes of Badenoch, in which 
last place he refreshed himself some hours with sleep ; and, 
before it was daylight, got over Glenroy, the 15th, and kept 
themselves private all day. As they were approaching to- 
wards Locheil's seat, Auchnacarry, they came to the river 
Lochy at night, being fine moonshine. The difficulty was 
how to get over. Upon this Clunes Cameron met them on 
the water-side, at whom Locheil asked how they would get 
over the river. He said " Very well ; for I have an old boat 
carried from Loch Arkaig, that the enemy left unburnt of all 
the boats you had, Locheil." Locheil asked to see the boat. 
Upon seeing it, he said, " I am afraid we will not be safe with 

1 Meaning any inhabited district. 



372 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

it." Quoth Climes, u I shall cross first, and show you the 
way." The matter was agreed upon. Clunes, upon reflec- 
tion, said, " I have six bottles of brandy, and I believe all of 
you will be the better of a dram." This brandy was brought 
from Fort-Augustus, where the enemy lay in garrison, about 
nine miles from that part of Lochy where they were about 
to cross. Locheil went to the Prince, and said, " Will your 
Royal Highness take a dram ? " " Oh," said the Prince, 
" can you have a dram here V u Yes," replied Locheil, " and 
that from Fort- Augustus too;" which pleased the Prince 
much, that he should have provisions from his enemies. 
He said, " Come, let us have it." Upon this three of the 
bottles were drunk. Then they passed the river Lochy by 
three crossings : Clunes Cameron in the first with so many ; 
then the Prince in the second with so many ; and in the 
last Locheil with so many. In the third and last ferrying, 
the crazy boat leaked so much, that there would be four or 
five pints of water in the bottom, and in hurrying over, the 
three remaining bottles of brandy were all broke. When the 
Prince called for a dram, he was told that the bottles were 
broke, and that the common fellows had drunk all that was 
in the bottom of the boat, as being good punch, which had 
made the fellows so merry, that they made great diversion 
to the company as they marched along. 

' After the morning of the 16th, the Prince arrived, in 
Auchnacarry, LocheiPs seat, where he was as ill off as any- 
where else for accommodation, as the enemy had burnt and 
demolished the place. All the 16th he stayed there, and set 
out at night, and arrived, the 17th, at a place called Glen- 
camger, in the head of Loch Arkaig, where he found Cluny 
and Dr Cameron, who had prepared for him, expecting 
him. By a very gTeat good chance, Cluny, understanding 
that he himself and others of them would be necessarily 
obliged to travel often betwixt Badenoch and Locheil's 
country, and knowing that it was scarce possible for people 
travelling that way— even those that could be seen, and 
much less they that could not — to find provisions in 
their passage, as all was rummaged and plundered by the 
enemy, planted a small store of meal, carried from Bade- 
noch, in the house of one Murdoch Macpherson, in Coilerig 
of Glenroy, a trusty man, and tenant to Keppoch, in the 
road and about half way, to be still a ready supply in case 
of need ; from which secret small magazine he and Mr 
Cameron brought some with them as they went forward 
from Benalder, and had it made into bannocks against the 
Prince's coming to Glencamger ; and when he and his com- 



Charles's wanderings — the mainland. 373 

pany arrived, there was a cow killed ; on which bannocks 
and beef, his Royal Highness, with his whole retinue, were 
regaled and feasted plentifully * that night. On the 18th, 
he set out from Glencamger with daylight, and upon the 
19th arrived at the shipping ; what was extant of the Glen- 
camger bannocks and beef having been all the provisions till 
then.' 

Cluny and Breakachie now took leave of the Prince, and 
returned to Badenoch, for it was the inclination of this 
chief to remain concealed in his own fastnesses, rather than 
seek a refuge on a foreign soil. 

Before the arrival of the Prince, a considerable number 
of skulking gentlemen and others had assembled, in order 
to proceed in the vessels to France. Amongst these were 
young Clanranald, Glenaladale, Macdonald of Dalely and 
his two brothers. They had seized Macdonald of Barris- 
dale on the suspicion of his having made a paction with the 
enemy to deliver up the Prince ; and this gentleman was 
actually carried to France, and there kept for a considerable 
time as a prisoner. Charles waited upwards of a day, to 
allow of a few more assembling, and he then (Saturday, 
September 20) went on board L'Hereux, accompanied by 
Locheil, Lochgarry, John Boy Stuart, and Dr Cameron. 
From the vessel he wrote a letter to Cluny, informing him 
of his embarkation, and of the excellent state in which he 
found the vessels. Twenty-three gentlemen, and a hun- 
dred and seven men of common rank, are said to have sailed 
with him in the two ships. 'The gentlemen, as well as 
commons, ivere seen to weep, though they boasted of being 
soon back with an irresistible force.' 2 

The unparalleled tale of the Prince's wanderings is now 
concluded. For upwards of five months he had skulked as 
a proscribed fugitive through the mountains and seas of 
the West Highlands, often in the most imminent danger of 

1 At this place the Prince gave the following letter to Cluny, acknowledg- 
ing his services, and promising reward. Sir Walter Scott, who possessed the 
original, was good enough to communicate a copy in 1827. The Prince 
appears to have used new style in his date. 

Mr M'Pherson of Clunie, 

As we are sensible of your and clan's fidelity and integrity to us 
during our adventures in Scotland and England in the years 1745 and 1746, in 
recovering our just rights from the Elector of Hanover, by which you have 
suffered very great losses in your interest and person, I therefore promise, 
when it shall please God to put it in my power, to make a grateful return 
suitable to your sufferings. Charles, P. R. 

JHralagich in Glencamgier 
ofLocharkcvg, 8th Sept. 1746. 

2 Newspaper report of the day. 



374 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

being taken, and generally exposed to very severe personal 
hardships; yet he eluded all search, and never lost his 
health or spirits in any fatal degree. The narrowness of 
his own escapes is shown strikingly in the circumstance 
of so many persons being taken immediately after having 
contributed to his safety. The reader must have already 
accorded all due praise to the people who, by their kindness 
and fidelity, had been the chief means of working out his 
deliverance. Scarcely any gentlemen to whom he applied 
for protection, or to aid in effecting his movements, refused 
to peril their own safety on his account ; hundreds, many 
of whom were in the humblest walks of life, had been in- 
trusted with his secret, or had become aware of it ; yet, if 
we overlook the beggar boy in South Uist, and the dubious 
case of Barrisdale, none had attempted to give him up to 
his enemies. 1 Thirty thousand pounds had been offered in 
vain for the life of one human being, in a country where 
the sum would have purchased a princely estate. The 
conduct of the Prince himself under his extraordinary 
dangers and hardships is allowed by all who gave their 
personal recollections of it to have been marked by great 
caution and prudence, as well as by a high degree of forti- 
tude, and a cheerfulness which no misery could extinguish. 
Perhaps the testimonies to his cheerfulness are only too 
strong, and might lead to a conclusion different from that 
intended by the witnesses — namely, that he was scarcely 
considerate enough of the wretchedness which his ambition 
had occasioned to others. Here, however, we are met by 
the strong expressions of sympathy for those injured in his 
cause which he uttered in Raasay and Skye. It is also 
expressly stated by several of his fellow-adventurers that 
he put on appearances of cheerfulness, on various occasions, 
to keep up the spirits of those around him. His conduct 
throughout his wanderings appears, upon the whole, credit- 
able to him, whatever shades may have settled upon his 
character at a later period. That it entirely pleased the 
gentlemen who associated with him, is abundantly evident. 
All of these, in their various narratives, speak of him with 
the greatest admiration. The Rev. John Cameron, in parti- 

1 Much as we must admire the fidelity of the Highlanders on this occasion, 
it would not be just to human nature to say that it is without parallel. M. 
Berryer, the eloquent partisan of the fallen dynasty of France, at his trial, 
October 16, 1832, mentioned that, in the Vendean campaign of that year, the 
Duchesse de Berri changed her abode not less than three or four times a- week, 
that every change was known to eight or ten persons at least, and yet, in the 
course of six months, not a single person betrayed the honourable confidence 
reposed in him. 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 375 

cular, sums up with the following" panegyric : — ' He sub- 
mitted with patience to his adverse fortune ; was cheerful ; 
and frequently desired those who were with him to be so. 
He was cautious when in the greatest danger ; never at a 
loss in resolving what to do. He regretted more the dis- 
tress of those who suffered for adhering to his interest, than 
the hardships and dangers he was hourly exposed to. To 
conclude, he possesses all the virtues that form the character 
of a true hero and a great prince.' The interest he bore in 
the eyes of his followers could not be entirely the offspring 1 
of the fascination of birth and rank. I have a letter of 
Bishop Mackintosh before me, in which that venerable 
person mentions that he had known many individuals who 
had gone out to fight for Prince Charles, but he never knew 
one who regretted having fought for him, or did not seem 
as if he would have gladly perilled life in his cause once 
more. ' He went/ says Lord Mali on, l but not with him 
departed his remembrance from the Highlanders. For 
years and years did his name continue enshrined in their 
hearts and familiar to their tongues ; their plaintive ditties 
resounding with his exploits and inviting his return. 
Again, in these strains, do they declare themselves ready 
to risk life and fortune for his cause ; and even maternal 
fondness — the strongest, perhaps, of all human feelings — 
yields to the passionate devotion to " Prince Charlie." ? * 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 

*• And statutes reap the refuse of the sword.' — Johnson. 

Long before Charles's escape, a multitude of his followers, 
less fortunate, had met a cruel and bloody death upon the 
scaffolds of England. The necessity of terrifying the friends 
of the house of Stuart from all future attempts on its behalf, 
had reconciled the meek to a policy which there can be no 
doubt sprang immediately from the vengeful spirit of certain 
leading men, and particularly the Duke of Cumberland, who 
had only left the Highlands in order to seek new victims 

1 I ance had sons, hut now I hae nane ; 
I hred them toiling sairly ; 
And I wad hear them a' again, 
And lose them a' for Charlie. 
—O'er the Water to Charlie, No. 37 of Mr Hogg's second series. 



376 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

in the south. 1 Few, probably, would deny that the late at- 
tempt to disturb a settlement in which the bulk of the nation 
acquiesced/ called for some exercise of the law's severity; 
but I would hope that, in the present age, there are still 
fewer who can behold unmoved a cruel death falling as a 
punishment upon men who, so far from being actuated by 
the spirit of crime, had been prompted by nearly as high a 
sense of duty as the mind of man ever experiences. The 
conduct of the men themselves in their last moments, and 
the declarations they left behind them, form a most affect- 
ing commentary on the laws which dictate death and igno- 
miny for offences of mere sentiment and opinion. 

The officers of the English regiment taken at Carlisle 
were the first victims. Eighteen of these unfortunate 
gentlemen, at the head of whom was Mr Francis Townly, 
the colonel of the Manchester regiment, were tried before a 
grand jury at the court-house on St Margaret's Hill, South- 
wark, in the county of Surrey, on the 15th of July, and 
four following days. All were condemned to death except 
one, and on the 29th of the month, four days after the arrival 
of the Duke of Cumberland at St James's, an order came to 
their place of confinement, ordering the execution, on the 
succeeding day, of nine who were judged to be most guilty 
— namely, Francis Townly, George Fletcher, Thomas Chad- 
wick, James Dawson, Thomas Deacon, John Berwick, 
Andrew Blood, Thomas Syddal, and David Morgan ; the 
other eight being reprieved for three weeks. 

These ill-fated persons were roused from sleep at six o'clock 
in the morning of July 30th, to prepare for death. The 
firmness which they displayed throughout the whole scene 
was very remarkable. Only Syddal was observed to tremble 
when the halter was put about his neck. When their irons 
had been knocked off, their arms pinioned, and the ropes 
adjusted about their necks, they were put into three sledges. 

Kennington Common was the place appointed for their 
execution ; and as the spectacle was expected to be attended 
with all those circumstances of barbarity awarded by the 
English law of treason, the London mob had assembled in 
extraordinary numbers to witness it. A pile of fagots and 
a block were placed near the gallows, and while the prisoners 
were removing from the sledges into the cart from which 
they were to be turned off, the fagots were set on fire, and 
the guards formed a circle round the place of execution. 
The prisoners were not attended by clergymen of any per- 

1 The duke, after his return to London, continued to ' press for measures of 
the utmost severity.'— if. Walpole to H. Mann. 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. '377 

suasion ; but Morgan, who had been a barrister-at-law, read 
prayers and other pious meditations from a book of devotion, 
to which the rest seemed very attentive, joining' in all the 
responses and ejaculations with great fervour. Half an 
hour was spent in these exercises, during which they be- 
trayed no symptoms of irresolution, though their deportment 
was said to be perfectly suitable, at the same time, to their 
unhappy circumstances. On concluding prayers, they took 
some written papers from their books and threw them 
among the spectators. These were found to contain decla- 
rations to the effect that they died in a just cause, that they 
did not repent of what they had done, and that they doubted 
not but their deaths would be avenged, together with some 
expressions which were considered treasonable. They like- 
wise delivered papers severally to the sheriff, and then threw 
away their hats, which were found to contain other trea- 
sonable documents. According to the atrocious treason law 
of Edward III., the culprits were only allowed to hang* three 
minutes. Then, with life scarcely extinct, their bodies were 
placed on a block, disembowelled and beheaded, the viscera 
being thrown into a fire. The mutilated remains were con- 
veyed back to prison on the sledges, and the heads of Townly 
and Fletcher were, three days after, affixed upon Temple-Bar, 
while those of Deacon, Berwick, Chadwick, and Syddal 
were preserved in spirits, in order to be disposed in the same 
way at Carlisle and Manchester. 

The mob of London had hooted these ill-fated gentlemen 
on their passage to and from their trials ; but at the exe- 
cution they looked on with faces betokening" at least pity 
for their misfortunes, if not also admiration of their courage. 
A circumstance observed at the time excited much com- 
miseration amongst the crowd. This was the appearance at 
the place of execution of Charles Deacon, a very youthful 
brother of one of the culprits, himself a culprit, and under 
sentence of death for the same offence, but who had been 
permitted to attend the last scene of his brother's life in a 
coach, along with a guard. Another circumstance still 
more affecting came afterwards to the knowledge of the 
public. James Dawson, the son of a gentleman of Lan- 
cashire, and who had not completed his studies at St John's 
College, Cambridge, was attached to a young lady, of good 
family and fortune, at the time when some youthful excesses 
induced him to run away from college and join the insur- 
gents. Had he been acquitted, or if he could have obtained 
the royal mercy, the day of his enlargement was fixed by 
the parents of both parties to have been that of their mar- 



378 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

riage. When it was ascertained that he was to suffer the 
cruel death which has just been described, the inconsolable 
young 1 lady determined, notwithstanding the remonstrances 
of her friends, to witness the execution ; and she accord- 
ingly followed the sledges in a hackney-coach, accompanied 
by a gentleman nearly related to her, and one female friend. 
She got near enough to see the fire which was to consume 
her lover's heart, besides all the other dreadful preparations 
for his fate, without betraying any extravagant emotions. 
She also succeeded in restraining her feelings during the 
progress of the bloody tragedy. But when all was over, and 
the shouts of the multitude rang in her ears, she drew her 
head back into the coach, and crying, l My dear, I follow 
thee, I follow thee — sweet Jesus, receive both our souls 
together V fell upon the neck of her companion, and expired 
in the moment she was speaking. 1 

Bills of indictment having been found by the grand jury 
of Surrey against the Earls of Kilmarnock and Cromarty, 
and Lord Balmerino, these three noblemen 2 " were tried by 
the House of Peers on the 28th of July. This high solemnity 
was conducted with great state, a hundred and thirty-five 
peers being present. Lord Chancellor Hardwicke acted on 
the occasion as lord high steward, or president of the assem- 
bly. Westminster Hall was fitted up in a most magnificent 
manner for the purpose. Mr George Ross was appointed 
solicitor for Kilmarnock and Balmerino, and Mr Adam 
Gordon for Cromarty, at their own request. 

When reciprocal compliments had passed between the 
prisoners and their peers, the indictments were read; to 
which Kilmarnock and Cromarty successively pleaded 
' Guilty/ recommending themselves to the king's mercy. 
Balmerino, before pleading to his indictment — that is to say, 
before avowing himself guilty or not guilty — asked the lord 
high steward if it would avail him anything to prove that 
he was not at the siege of Carlisle, as specified in the indict- 
ment, but ten miles distant. His Grace answered that it 
might or might not be of service, according to the circum- 
stances : but he begged to remind his lordship that it was 
contrary to form to allow the prisoner to ask any questions 
before pleading, and he therefore desired his lordship to 
plead. 6 Plead ! ? cried Balmerino, who knew nothing of the 
technicalities of an English court, and whose bold blunt 

1 This incident became, in the hands of Shenstone, the subject of a well- 
known ballad. 

2 The Marquis of Tullibardine had died in the Tower, June 9, of an illness 
which had affected him throughout the whole time of the campaign. 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 379 

mind stood in no awe of this august assembly — ( why, I am 
pleading" as fast as I can.' The steward explained what 
was technically meant by pleading, and his lordship then 
pleaded l Not guilty.' The court immediately proceeded to 
his trial, which was soon despatched. King's counsel were 
heard in the first place, and iive or six witnesses were then 
examined in succession, by whom it was proved that his 
lordship entered Carlisle, though not on the day specified, 
at the head of a cavalry regiment, called, from his name, 
Elphinstone's Horse, with his sword drawn. The prisoners 
had no counsel, but Balmerino himself made an exception, 
which was overruled. The lord high steward then asked if 
he had anything further to offer in his defence, to which 
his lordship answered that he was sorry he had given the 
court so much trouble, and had nothing more to say. On 
this the lords retired to the House of Peers, and the opinion 
of the judges being asked touching the overt act, they de- 
clared that it was not material, as other facts were proved 
beyond contradiction. They then returned to the hall, 
where the steward, according to ancient usage, asking them 
one by one, beginning with the youngest baron, ' My Lord 

of , is Arthur Lord Balmerino guilty of high treason ? ' 

each answered, laying his right hand upon his left breast, 
' Guilty, upon my honour, my lord.' The prisoners were 
afterwards recalled to the bar, informed of the verdict of the 
court, and remanded to the Tower till the day after next, 
when they were again to appear, in order to receive sentence. 
The house immediately broke up, and the prisoners were 
conveyed back to prison, with the edge of the axe turned 
towards them. 

When the court met again on the 30th, the lord high 
steward made a speech to the prisoners, and asked each of 
them 'if he had anything to offer why judgment of death 
should not pass against them ? ' To this question Kilmarnock 
replied in a speech expressive of deep contrition for his con- 
duct, and imploring the court to intercede with the king in 
his behalf. He represented that he had been educated in 
revolution principles, and even appeared in arms in behalf 
of the present royal family; that having joined the insur- 
gents in a rash moment, he had immediately repented the 
step, and resolved to take the first opportunity of putting 
himself into the hands of government ; for this purpose he 
had separated himself from his corps at the battle of Cul- 
loden, and surrendered himself a prisoner, though he might 
easily have escaped. He, moreover, endeavoured to make 
merit with the court for having employed himself solici- 



380 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

tously, during* the progress of the insurrection, in softening 
the horrors which the war had occasioned in his country, 
and in protecting the royalist prisoners from the abuse of 
their captors. Finally, he made a declaration of affection 
for the reigning family, not more incredible from his past 
actions than it was humiliating in his present condition, and 
concluded with an asseveration that, even if condemned to 
death, he would employ his last moments in 'praying for 
the preservation of the illustrious House of Hanover.' The 
Earl of Cromarty pronounced a speech of nearly the same 
complexion, but concluding with a more eloquent appeal to 
the clemency of his majesty. ' Nothing remains, my lords/ 
he said, 'but to throw myself, my life, and fortune upon 
your lordships' compassion. But of these, my lords, as to 
myself is the least part of my sufferings. I have involved 
an affectionate wife, with an unborn infant, as parties of my 
guilt, to share its penalties; I have involved my eldest son, 
whose infancy and regard for his parents hurried him down 
the stream of rebellion ; I have involved also eight innocent 
children, who must feel their parent's punishment before 
they know his guilt. Let them, my lords, be pledges to his 
majesty, let them be pledges to your lordships, let them be 
pledges to my country, for mercy ; let the silent eloquence 
of their grief and tears, let the powerful language of innocent 
nature, supply my want of eloquence and persuasion ; let me 
enjoy mercy, but no longer than I deserve it; and let me no 
longer enjoy life than I shall use it to efface the crime I 
have been guilty of. Whilst I thus intercede to his majesty, 
through the medium of your lordships, let the remorse of 
my guilt as a subject, let the sorrow of my heart as a hus- 
band, let the anguish of my mind as a father, speak the rest 
of my misery. As your lordships are men, feel as men ; 
but may none of you ever suffer the smallest part of my 
anguish. But if, after all, my lords, my safety shall be 
found inconsistent with that of the public, and nothing but 
my blood can atone for my unhappy crime ; if the sacrifice 
of my life, my fortune, and family is judged indispensably 
necessary for stopping the loud demands of public justice, 
and if the bitter cup is not to pass from me, not mine, but 
thy will, oh God, be done ! ' 

The mind of Balmerino was superior to such humiliation. 
When the question was put to him, he pleaded that an in- 
dictment could not be found in the county of Surrey for a 
crime laid to he committed at Carlisle in December last, in 
regard that the act ordaining the rebels to be tried in such 
counties as the king should appoint, which was not passed 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 381 

till March, could not have a retrospective effect; and he 
desired to be allowed counsel. On this the Earl of Bath 
asked if the noble lord at the bar had had any counsel 
allowed him, and was answered that he had never desired 
any. Balmerino replied that all the defences which had 
occurred to him or his solicitor having been laid before a 
counsellor, and by him judged to be trifling-, he had not 
chosen to give the court needless trouble ; and that the 
above objection had only been hinted to him an hour or two 
before he was brought into court. After some altercation, 
the court assigned Messrs Wilbraham and Forrester as 
counsel to his lordship, and adjourned till the 1st of 
August. 

Being again brought to the bar on that day, the Earls of 
Kilmarnock and Cromarty were again asked if they had 
anything* to propose why judgment of death should not 
pass upon them, and answered in the negative. The lord 
high steward informed Balmerino, that having started an 
objection, desired counsel, and had their assistance, he was 
now to make use of it if he thought fit. His lordship 
answered that his counsel having satisfied him there was 
nothing in the objection that could do him service, he de- 
clined having them heard ; that he would not have made 
the objection, if he had not been persuaded there w^as ground 
for it ; and that he was sorry for the trouble he had given 
his Grace and the peers. All the prisoners having thus sub- 
mitted to the court, the lord high steward made a long and 
pathetic speech, which he concluded by pronouncing sen- 
tence of death. The prisoners were then withdrawn from 
the bar. 

The Earl of Kilmarnock, who was only in his forty-second 
year, and extremely anxious for life, presented a petition 
for mercy to the king-, and others to the Prince of Wales 
and the Duke of Cumberland, intreating them to inter- 
cede in his behalf with their royal father. The tenor of 
these petitions was much the same with that of his speech, 
equally penitential and humble. That to the duke con- 
tained a vindication of himself from some aspersions which 
had reached his royal highness, and which he understood 
had prejudiced that personage against him. It had been 
whispered that the earl was concerned in the order said to 
have been found in the pocket of a prisoner after the battle 
of Culloden, and that, moreover, he had exercised sundry 
other cruelties upon the prisoners in the hands of the in- 
surgents. Both of these charges he distinctly denied, and 
probably with truth — though the assertion that he had vo- 



382 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

luntarily surrendered himself to government, contained in 
his speech, and in the petition to the king", was afterwards 
confessed by himself to have been made only with the view 
of moving* his majesty to mercy. 

The Earl of Cromarty, whose share in the insurrection 
had been much less conspicuous, made similar efforts to 
obtain the royal grace. The countess went about, after the 
sentence had been pronounced, delivering* petitions in per- 
son to all the lords of the cabinet-council ; and on the fol- 
lowing Sunday she went in mourning to Kensington Palace 
to petition majesty itself. When the interesting" condition 
of this lady is considered, it must be allowed that a more 
powerful mode of intercession could not have been adopted. 
She waylaid the king* as he was going to chapel, fell upon 
her knees before him, seized the hem of his coat, and pre- 
senting a petition, fainted away at his feet. His majesty 
raised her up with his own hand, received her petition, and 
gave it to the Duke of Grafton, who was in attendance, 
desiring Lady Stair, who accompanied Lady Cromarty, to 
conduct her to an apartment where care might be taken 
of her. A day or two after, the Dukes of Hamilton and 
Montrose, the Earl of Stair, and several other courtiers, 
interceded with his majesty in the unfortunate earl's be- 
half. 

Balmerino made no effort to save his life, but behaved 
after this period as one who had resigned himself to death, 
and who despises those who are to inflict it. On learning 
that his two brothers in affliction had made their applica- 
tions for mercy, he said sneeringly, that as they had such 
great interest at court, they might have squeezed his name 
in with their own. A gentleman calling upon him a week 
after his sentence, and apologising for intruding upon the 
few hours which his lordship had to live, he replied, l Oh, 
sir, no intrusion at all — I have done nothing to make my 
conscience uneasy. I shall die with a true heart, and un- 
daunted; for I think no man fit to live who is not fit 
to die; nor am I anyways concerned at what I have 
done.' 

The Earl of Cromarty received a pardon on the 9th of 
August, and on the 11th an order was signed in council for 
the execution of Lords Kilmarnock and Balmerino. Cro- 
marty and Kilmarnock had both alike hoped for pardon, 
and most persons expected that Balmerino would be the 
only victim. But the unfavourable impression which the 
Duke of Cumberland had received of the character of Kil- 
marnock, together with the prevarications upon which he 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 883 

had grounded his claims for mercy, determined, it was sup- 
posed, that he should also perish. 1 

Nothing could mark more strongly the different characters 
of these two unfortunate noblemen, than the way in which 
each respectively received intelligence of this final order. 
It was communicated to Kilmarnock by Mr Foster, a dis- 
senting or Presbyterian clergyman, who had spent some 
time before with his lordship in religious exercises, and in 
some measure prepared his mind for the announcement. 
When the words of doom fell upon the ear of the culprit, 
their force was softened by the religious consolations with 
which they were accompanied, and Kilmarnock received 
them with tranquillity and resignation. Balmerino, on the 
contrary, heard the news with all the unconcern and levity 
with which he might have some months before received an 
order for some military movement. He was sitting at 
dinner with his lady when the warrant arrived ; and on 
her starting up distractedly and swooning away, he coolly 
proceeded to recover her by the usual means, and then re- 
marking that it should not make him lose his dinner, sat 
down again to table as if nothing had happened. He could 
even scarcely help chiding- her for the concern she had dis- 
played in his behalf, requesting" her to resume her seat at 
table, and laughing outright when she declared her inabi- 
lity to eat. 

On the Saturday preceding the Monday when the execu- 
tion was to take place, General Williamson thought proper 
to give Kilmarnock an account of all the circumstances of 
solemnity and outward terror which would accompany it. 
Being informed that an executioner was provided, who, 
besides being expert, was a very good sort of man, he ex- 
claimed, c General, this is one of the worst circumstances 
that you have mentioned. I cannot thoroughly like, for a 
work of this kind, your good sort of men. One of that 

1 The pardon of Lord Cromarty was accompanied by the condition that he 
should spend the remainder of his days at a particular spot in Devonshire. 
One of his daughters became Lady Elibank, and was an elegant and admired >,.- 
woman. One day, in company, when some discussion arose about the beauty 
of the long gloves she wore on her hands and arms, a lady sitting beside her 
said, that if her ladyship would excuse the remark, she would say that the 
hands and arms were sufficient to make any gloves look well. ' Ah ! madam,' 
replied Lady Elibank, * let us never be vain of such things : these hands and 
arms at one time washed the clothes and prepared the food of a father, mother, 
and seven other children.' 

The child unborn at the time of the earl's condemnation became the wife of j^ 
Sir William Murray of Ochtertyre. It is alleged, by all who remember Lady 
Augusta Murray, that she had the natural mark of an axe upon her neck, 
which was supposed to have been impressed by the labouring imagination of 
her mother. 



384 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

character must be tender-hearted and compassionate ; and a 
rougher and less sensible person would be much more fit 
for the office.' Throughout this trying conversation, his 
lordship is said to have maintained as much composure as 
the least compassionate reader can do in perusing a mere 
report of it. 

When the day arrived, and the general went to inform 
the earl that the sheriffs were waiting for the prisoners, his 
lordship, having completely prepared himself for the an- 
nouncement, was not in the least agitated, but said calmly, 
c General, I am ready, and will follow you.' In going down 
stairs he met Balmerino at the first landing-place, who em- 
braced him affectionately, and said, ( My lord, I am heartily 
sorry to have your company in this expedition.' The two 
unfortunate noblemen were then conducted to the Tower- 
gate, and delivered over to the sheriffs. As they were 
leaving the Tower, the deputy-lieutenant, according to 
custom, cried, i God bless King George ! \ to which Kilmar- 
nock made a bow, while the inflexible Balmerino exclaimed, 
c God bless King James ! ' The procession moved in a slow 
and solemn manner towards the house prepared for the re- 
ception of the lords. In their progress, some person was 
heard to exclaim from the surrounding crowd, i Which is 
Balmerino?' when that nobleman instantly turned half 
round and politely said, 4 1 am Balmerino.' 

The two lords were conducted to separate apartments, 
where they remained for some time in retirement with their 
friends. Kilmarnock received a message from Balmerino 
requesting an interview, which being consented to, Bal- 
merino was introduced into Kilmarnock's apartment. The 
conversation which took place is reported by Mr Foster to 
have been precisely as follows : — Balmerino. — ( My lord, I 
beg leave to ask your lordship one question.' Kilmarnock* 
— * To any question, my lord, that you shall think it proper 
to ask, I believe I shall see no reason to decline giving an 
answer.' B. — ' Why, then, my lord, did you ever see or 
know of any order, signed by the Prince, to give no quarter 
at Culloden?' K.— 6 No, my lord.' B.— < Nor I neither; 
and therefore it seems to be an invention to justify their 
own murders.' K. — ' No, my lord, I do not think that in- 
ference can be drawn from it ; because, while I was at In- 
verness, I was informed by several officers that there was 
such an order signed " George Murray," and that it was in 
the duke's custody.' B. — ' Lord George Murray ! Why, 
then, they should not charge it upon the Prince.' His 
lordship then took his leave, embracing his fellow-prisoner 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 385 

with great tenderness, and saying to him, l My dear Lord 
Kilmarnock, I am only sorry that I cannot pay all this 
reckoning alone. Once more, farewell for ever ! ' 

Lord Kilmarnock spent nearly an hour after this con- 
versation in devotion with Mr Foster and the gentleman 
attending him, and in making declarations that he sincerely 
repented of his crime, and had resumed at this last hour his 
former attachment to the reigning- family. His rank giving* 
him a precedence in what was to ensue, he was led first to 
the scaffold. Before leaving the room, he took a tender 
farewell of all the friends who attended him. When he 
stepped upon the scaffold, notwithstanding all his previous 
attempts to familiarise his mind with the idea of the scene, 
he could not help being somewhat appalled at the sight of 
so many dreadful objects, and he muttered in the ear of 
one of the attendant clergymen, ' Home, this is terrible ! ' 
He was habited in doleful black, and bore a countenance 
which, though quite composed, wore the deepest hue of 
melancholy. The sight of his careworn but still handsome 
figure, and of his pale, resigned countenance, produced a 
great impression upon the spectators, many of whom burst 
into tears. The executioner himself was so much affected, 
that he was obliged to drink several glasses of spirits, to 
brace his nerves for the work before him. 

From a rare contemporary print of the execution of Lord 
Kilmarnock, it appears that the scaffold was very small, and 
that there were not above six or seven persons upon it at 
the time his lordship submitted to the block. The block — 
which is still preserved and shown in the Tower — is a piece 
of wood, considerably higher than may be generally sup- 
posed ; the culprit only requiring to kneel and bend a little 
forward, in order to bring his neck over it. The cloth which 
originally covered the surrounding rails is turned up in 
such a manner as to give the spectators below an unin- 
terrupted view of the scene. The culprit appears kneeling* 
at the block, without his coat and waistcoat, and the frill of 
his shirt hanging down. The figures upon the scaffold, all 
except one of fearfully important character, are dressed in 
full dark suits of the fashion of King George II.'s reign, 
and most of them have w^hite handkerchiefs at their eyes, 
and express, by their attitudes, a violent degree of grief. 

It was a little after mid-day when the unhappy Kil- 
marnock approached the scene of his last sufferings. After 
mounting the scaffold, and taking leave of Mr Foster, who 
chose to retire, he proceeded to arrange his dress for the 
occasion. He informed the executioner, to whom he gave 

VOL. V. y 



\* 



886 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

a purse containing five guineas, that lie should give the 
signal for the descent of the axe, about two minutes after he 
should lay his neck upon the block, by dropping a hand- 
kerchief. Then he went forward and knelt upon a black 
cushion, which was placed for the purpose before the block. 
Whether to support himself, or as a more convenient posture 
for devotion, he happened to lay his hands upon the surface 
of the block, along with his neck, and the executioner was 
obliged to desire him to let them fall down, lest they should 
be mangled or break the blow. Being informed that the 
neck of his waistcoat was in the way, he rose once more 
upon his feet, and with the help of one of his friends, Mr 
Walkingshaw of Scotstoun, had that garment taken off. 
This done, and the neck being made' completely bare to the 
shoulder, he again knelt down as before. Mr Home's ser- 
vant, who held a corner of the cloth to receive his head, 
heard him at this moment remind the executioner that he 
would give the signal in about two minutes. That interval 
he spent in fervent devotion, as appeared by the motion of 
his hands, and now and then of his head. Having then 
fixed his neck down close upon the block, he gave the 
signal, and his body remained without the least motion till 
the descent of the axe, which went so far through the neck 
at the first blow, that only a little piece of skin remained to 
be severed by the second. 1 

The head, which immediately dropped into the cloth, was 
not exposed in the usual manner by the executioner, in 
consequence of the prisoner's express request, but deposited 
with his body in the coffin, which was then delivered to his 
friends, and placed in the hearse. The scaffold was then 
cleaned, and strewed with fresh sawdust, so that no ap- 
pearance of a former execution might remain to offend the 
feelings of Lord Balmerino ; and the executioner, who was 
dressed in white, changed such of his clothes as were 
bloody. 

The under-sheriff then went to the apartment of Bal- 
merino, who, upon his entrance, said that he supposed Lord 
Kilmarnock was now no more, and asked how the execu- 
tioner had performed his duty. Being informed upon this 
point, he remarked that it was well done. He had pre- 
viously maintained before his friends a show of resolution 
and indifference which perfectly astonished them, twice 

1 Colonel Craufurd of Craufurdland in Ayrshire, next neighbour to the Earl 
of Kilmarnock at his seat of Dean Castle, thought it his duty to attend his 
lordship as a friend on this occasion ; for which simple act of courtesy and 
humanity he was, it is said, immediately cashiered. 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 387 

taking* wine, with a little bread, and desiring them to 
drink him i ain degrae ta haiven. ? He now said, ' Gentle- 
men, I will detain you no longer, for I desire not to pro- 
tract my life ;' saluted them with an air of cheerfulness, 
which drew tears from every eye but his own, and hastened 
to the scaffold. 

The appearance of Balmerino upon this fatal stage pro- 
duced a very different sensation among the spectators from 
that occasioned by Kilmarnock. His firm step, his bold 
and manly, though rough fig*ure, but above all, his dress — 
the same regimental suit of blue, turned up with red, which 
he had worn throughout the late campaign — excited ad- 
miration rather than any emotion of pity. So far from ex- 
pressing any concern about his approaching death, he even 
reproved the tenderness of such of his friends as were about 
him. Walking round the scaffold, he bowed to the people, 
and inspected the inscription upon his coffin, which he 
declared to be correct. He also asked which was his hearse, 
and ordered the man to drive near. Then looking with an 
air of satisfaction at the block, which he designated as his 
'pillow of rest/ he took out a paper, and putting on his 
spectacles, read it to the few about him. It contained a 
declaration of his unshaken adherence to the House of 
Stuart, and of his regret for ever having served in the 
armies of their enemies, Queen Anne and George I., which 
he considered the only faults of his life tending to justify 
his present fate. 

Finally, he called for the executioner, who immediately 
appeared, and was about to ask his forgiveness, when Bal- 
merino stopped him by saying, i Friend, you need not ask 
forgiveness ; the execution of your duty is commendable.' 
Presenting the man with three guineas, he added, i Friend, 
I never had much money ; this is all I now have ; I wish it 
were more for your sake, and I am sorry I can add nothing 
to it but my coat and waistcoat. 7 He took off these gar- 
ments, and laid them upon his coffin for the executioner. 

In his immediate preparations for death, this singular 
man displayed the same wonderful coolness and intrepidity. 
Having put on a flannel vest which had been made on pur- 
pose, together with a cap of tartan, to denote, he said, that 
he died a Scotsman, he approached the block, and kneeling 
down, went through a sort of rehearsal of the execution for 
the instruction of the executioner, showing him how he 
should give the sig*nal for the blow by dropping his arms. 
He then returned to his friends, took a tender farewell of 
them, and looking round upon the crowd, said, ' I am 



f 



388 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

afraid there are some who may think my behaviour bold ; 
but (addressing a gentleman near him) remember, sir, what 
I tell you — it arises from a confidence in God ? and a clear 
conscience. 7 

At this moment he observed the executioner standing 
with the axe, and going up to him, took the weapon into 
his own hand and felt its edge. On returning it, he showed 
the man w T here to strike his neck, and animated him to do 
it with vigour and resolution ; adding, ' for in that, friend, 
will consist your mercy.' With a countenance of the utmost 
cheerfulness he then knelt down at the block, and uttering 
the following words — c Oh Lord, reward my friends, forgive 
my enemies, bless the Prince and the Duke, and receive my 
soul ? — dropped his arms for the blow. The executioner, 
recollecting the deliberation of Lord Kilmarnock, was thrown 
out by the suddenness with which the signal was made in 
the present case, and gave his blow without taking accurate 
aim at the proper place. He hit the unfortunate nobleman 
between the shoulders, depriving him in a great measure, 
it was supposed, of sensation, but not producing death. It 
has been said by some who were present that Balmerino 
turned his head half round and gnashed his teeth in the 
face of the executioner. If this was the case, it fortunately 
did not prevent the man from recovering his presence of 
mind ; for he immediately brought down another blow, 
which went through two-thirds of the neck. Death attended 
this stroke, and the body fell away from the block. It was 
presently replaced by some of the bystanders, and a third 
blow completed the work. 1 

The fate of these unfortunate noblemen excited more 
public interest than perhaps any other transaction connected 
with the insurrection. The Jacobites, together with all 
such as were of a bold temperament, applauded the beha- 
viour of Balmerino ; while the Whigs, and all persons of a 
pious disposition, admired the placid and devout resignation 
of Kilmarnock. Every member of the community seemed 
to have chosen his favourite nobleman, in whose behalf he 
was prepared to talk, dispute, and even to fight. Innu- 
merable publications appeared regarding them, informing 

1 The day before his death, Balmerino penned a letter for the old chevalier, 
reciting some of his services, stating that he was about to die ' with great 
satisfaction and peace of mind * in the best of causes, and intreating that he 
would provide for his wife, ' so that she should not want bread, which other- 
wise she must do, my brother having left more debt oh the estate than it was 
worth, and [I] having nothing in the world to give her.' The chevalier 
attended to this request, by sending Lady Balmerino £60 in May 1747- Her 
ladj^ship survived, in straitened circumstances, for a few years- 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 389 

the public of their history, and discussing 1 their respective 
and very opposite characters. 

James Nicholson, Walter Ogilvie, and Donald Macdonald, 
forming" a selection from the Scottish officers taken at Car- 
lisle, were the next victims of the offended state. They were 
condemned at St Margaret's Hill on the 2d of August 
(along with Alexander Macgrowther, who was afterwards 
reprieved), and executed at Kennington Common on the 
22d. Nicholson had kept a coffee-house at Leith, and was a 
man in middle life ; but Macdonald and Ogilvie were both 
young men of good families, the first a cadet of the family 
of Keppoch, and the other a native of the county of Banff. 
They were conducted to the place of execution in a sledge, 
guarded by a party of horse grenadiers and a detachment 
of the foot-guards. Macdonald and Nicholson appeared at 
the last solemn scene in their Highland dress. They spent 
an hour in devotion upon the scaffold, and were then exe- 
cuted in precisely the same manner with Francis Townly 
and his companions, except that they were permitted to 
hang fifteen minutes before being dismembered. 

During the course of the two ensuing months many 
trials took place at St Margaret's Hill, without any of the 
prisoners receiving sentence of death. But on the loth of 
November, judgment was pronounced upon no fewer than 
twenty-two persons, who had been convicted singly at diffe- 
rent times; and out of these, ^Ye were ordered for execution 
on the 28th of November. The names of the unfortunate 
persons were John Hamilton, Alexander Leith, Sir John 
Wedderburn, Andrew Wood, and James Bradshaw. Ha- 
milton had been governor of Carlisle, and signed its capitu- 
lation ; Leith was an aged and infirm man, who had dis- 
tinguished himself by his activity as a captain in the Duke 
of Perth's regiment ; Sir John Wedderburn had acted as 
receiver of the excise duties and cess raised by the insur- 
gents ; Andrew Wood was a youth of little more than two- 
and-twenty, who had displayed great courage and zeal in < 
the regiment of John Roy Stuart ; and Bradshaw was a 
respectable and wealthy merchant of Manchester, who had 
abandoned his business, and spent his fortune in the cause 
for which he was now to lay down his life. 

The execution of these gentlemen, which took place on 
the 28th of November, was attended with some affecting 
circumstances. Before nine o'clock in the morning, the 
servants of the keeper unlocked the rooms in which Sir John 
Wedderburn, Mr Hamilton, and James Bradshaw were 
confined, and uttering the awful announcement that they 



390 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

were to die, desired them to prepare themselves for the 
sheriff, who would immediately come to demand their per- 
N sons. Although this was the first certain intelligence they 
had of their fate, they received it with calmness, and said 
they would soon be ready to obey the sheriff's request. They 
then took a melancholy farewell of a fellow-officer of the 
name of Farquharson, who had been respited, and was con- 
fined on the same side of the prison. The keeper's servants 
proceeded to rouse the rest of the doomed men, besides one 
of the name of Lindsay, who was as yet expected to share 
their fate. When they were told to prepare for the sheriff, 
Wood inquired if Governor Hamilton had been finally con- 
signed to execution ; and being* answered in the affirmative, 
remarked 'that he was sorry for that poor old gentleman.' 
They were led into the fore-part of the prison, and provided 
with a slight refreshment. On account of the policy of 
government in granting reprieves at the last hour, Brad- 
shaw still hoped to be pardoned, and endeavoured on this 
occasion to display a confident cheerfulness of manner. 
Wood, entertaining no such expectations, called for wine, 
and drank the health of his political idols, boldly assigning 
to each his treasonable title. Lindsay's reprieve arrived at 
the moment when he was submitting to have his hands tied, 
and produced such an effect upon his feelings, as almost to 
deprive him of the life which it was designed to save. The 
sanguine Bradshaw, whose halter was just then thrown 
over his head, eagerly inquired ' if there was any news for 
him.' The answer was, ' The sheriff is come, and waits for 



r 



you 

They were drawn to the place of execution in two sledges, 
Bradshaw shedding tears of disappointment and wretched- 
ness. They arrived at the foot of the fatal tree a little after 
noon, and the execution immediately took place in the 
midst of a vast crowd of spectators. The whole prayed for 
King James, and declared they did not fear death. 

In the meantime, this bloody work had been proceeding 
with still greater energy at Carlisle and York, where it was 
thought necessary to try most of the insurgents who had 
been taken at Culloden by the forms of an English court of 
Oyer and Terminer, instead of placing them at the mercy of 
their countrymen, who were now too generally suspected of 
disaffection to be intrusted with a commission so important. 
Carlisle, the principal scene of their misdeeds in England, 
was selected for the trial of most of the prisoners, as a place 
more likely than any other to produce a jury of the stamp 
required by government. The result proved that, however 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 391 

much the Scottish people might labour under the impu- 
tation of humanity, their Cumbrian neighbours were not 
much tinged with that disloyal vice. 

About the beginning of August, a herd — for such it might 
be termed — of these ill-fated persons was impelled, like one 
of their own droves of black cattle, from the Highlands 
towards Carlisle, 1 where, on being imprisoned, they were 
found to amount to no less than three hundred and eighty- 
five. To try so many individuals, with the certainty of 
finding almost all of them guilty, would have looked some- 
thing like premeditated massacre, and might have had an 
effect upon the nation very different from what was in- 
tended. It was therefore determined that, while all the 
officers, and others who had distinguished themselves by 
zeal in the insurrection, should be tried, the great mass 
should be permitted to cast lots, one in twenty to be tried, 
and the rest to be transported. Several individuals refused 
this extrajudicial proffer of g'race, and chose rather to take 
their chance upon a fair trial. The evidences were chiefly 
drawn from the ranks of the king's army. Bills of indict- 
ment were found against a hundred and nineteen indivi- 
duals. 

The time which intervened between the indictment and 
trial of the Carlisle prisoners was occupied by the judges 
at York, where the grand jury found bills of indictment 
against seventy-five insurgents there confined. In this 
city, not long before, the high-sheriff's chaplain had 
preached a sermon upon a very significant text — (Numbers, 
xxv. 5) — l And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay 
ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor ! ' 

The judges again sat at Carlisle on the 9th of September, 
on which, and the two following days, most of the hundred 
and nineteen prisoners were arraigned. On the 12th, the 
grand jury sat again, and found bills against fifteen more. 
Out of the hundred and thirty-three persons in all thus 
brought to the bar at Carlisle, one obtained delay, on ac- 

1 One Maclaren, a Balquhidder man, who had been concerned in cattle- 
dealing, and had often travelled this road before in more peacef id style, con- 
trived to make his escape amongst the hills at the head of Dumfriesshire. 
There is in that district a deep hollow called the Marquis of Annandale's 
Beef Tub, because the Border thieves used to keep their stolen cattle in it. 
The road skirted along the top of the steep-down sides of this pit. Seizing 
a lucky moment, Maclaren enveloped himself in his plaid, and rolled down 
into the hollow, regardless of the shot which the soldiers sent after him. 
Being received into the mist which lay at the bottom, he was instantly lost 
to pursuit ; and it is said that he spent that night in the Crook Inn, where 
the party had been the night before, and where he obtained concealment, 
although there was another party of soldiers in the house. 



392 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

count of an allegation that lie was a peer, eleven pled guilty 
when arraigned, thirty- two pled guilty when brought to 
trial, thirty -seven were found guilty, eleven found guilty, but 
recommended to mercy, thirty-six acquitted, audi Jive re- 
manded to prison to wait for further evidence. 

The trials at York commenced on the 2d of October, and 
ended on the 7th, when, out of the seventy-five persons in- 
dicted, two pled guilty when arraigned, smdjlfty-two when 
brought to trial, twelve were found guilty, four found guilty, 
but recommended to mercy, andjive acquitted. Seventy in 
all received sentence of death. The process of all these 
trials appears to have been extremely simple. Most of the 
prisoners endeavoured to take advantage of the notorious 
slavery in which the clans were held by their chiefs, by 
pleading that they had been forced into the insurgent 
army against their will ; but their defence was in every case 
easily repelled. 

Before the middle of October, an order was sent to Car- 
lisle for the execution of thirty out of the ninety-one per- 
sons there imprisoned under sentence ; ten at Carlisle on the 
18th (October), ten at Brampton on the 21st, and ten at 
Penrith on the 28th. Of the first ten, one was afterwards 
reprieved. The names of the remaining nine were Thomas 
Coppock, 1 Edward Roper, Francis Buchanan of Arnprior, 2 

1 This person seems to have been a young student of theology, of indifferent 
character. He joined the Prince at Manchester, and was one of those left 
behind at Carlisle. There was a ridiculous report that the Prince, at Carlisle, 
on the return of the army, made him bishop of that see. One of the wit- 
nesses on his trial, improving on the story, said he had received that appoint- 
ment from Hamilton, the governor of the town for the Prince. Yet this 
man is seriously spoken of in the contemporary journals as ' the titular 
bishop of Carlisle.' When condemned, seeing some of his companions 
weeping, he told them, with some exclamations not very appropriate to the 
clerical character, to cheer up — they would not be tried by a Cumberland 
jury in the other world. 

2 This is the gentleman alluded to at page 70 of this history. According to 
documents in the Rev. Mr Forbes's collection, he had not been concerned in 
the enterprise in anyway, although undoubtedly in his private sentiments 
he was well-affected to the House of Stuart. He was taken prisoner at his 
own house of Leny in Perthshire a short while before the battle of Culloden, 
and carried to Stirling Castle. There, and on his subsequent journey to Car- 
lisle, he was treated by the military as a man who was a prisoner by mistake. 
Often, on the road, he was allowed to ride on in front, to order dinner at the 
inns for the party. At Carlisle, he was, to his own great surprise, put in 
irons in a dungeon ; and when a friend remonstrated with the solicitor- 
general in his behalf, that officer said, ' Give yourself no trouble about that 
gentleman. I shall take care of him. I have particular orders about him ; 
for he must suffer.' At his trial, nothing could be proved against him but 
that he had written an unsubscribed letter to the Highland army. An appli- 
cation was made in his favour at court, but without success. He died lament- 
ing the neutral course which caution had induced him to take in the late civil 
war. 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS, 393 

Donald Macdonald of Kinlochmoidart, 1 Donald Macdonnell 
of Tiendrish, 2 John Henderson, John Macnaughton, James 

1 This gentleman, the only Highland chieftain "brought to the scaffold on 
this occasion, had been taken prisoner at Lesmahago, under circumstances 
narrated at page 178. He had never once drawn his sword in the insurrection, 
but had entertained the Prince at his house (immediately before the raising 
of the standard), and had afterwards gone on an embassy from him to the 
Laird of Macleod and Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat. 

2 This was the individual who had commanded the party at High Bridge 
at the beginning of the insurrection I see page 40) , and who had afterwards 
been taken prisoner in such remarkable circumstances at Falkirk (page 204). 
The Rev. Mr Forbes, who was confined in the same room with him in Edin- 
burgh Castle, speaks highly of him (Lyon in Mourning). ' He was,' says 
Forbes, * a brave, undaunted, honest man, of a good countenance, and of a 
strong robust make. He was much given to pious acts of devotion [being a 
Roman Catholic], and was remarkably a gentleman of excellent good manners. 
He bore all his sufferings with great submission and cheerfulness of temper.' 
In the course of the summer (1746), he was removed to Carlisle to undergo his 
trial ; and on the 24th of August we find him writing to his friend Forbes as 
follows : — ' Dear Sir, you have no doubt heard before now that our trials come 

on on the 9th of September ; may God stand with the righteous ! The whole ^ 
gentlemen who came from Scotland are all together in one floor, with up- 
wards of one hundred private men, so that we are much thronged. They 
have not all got irons as yet ; but they have not forgot me, nor the rest of 
most distinction ; and the whole will soon be provided. You'll make my 
compliments to Lady Bruce and Mr Clerk's family, but especially to Miss 
Mally Clerk, and tell her that, notwithstanding my irons, I could dance a 
Highland reel with her. Mr Patrick Murray makes offer of his compliments 
to you, and I hope we'll meet soon.' 

The hope under which this letter was written was soon extinguished by the 
result of his trial. He was there found guilty, though, as happened in too 
many similar cases, upon evidence altogether false, and with reference to 
facts in which he had had no concern. His friends and legal agents had all 
intreated him to plead guilty, as the only chance of escape ; but he was too 
zealous a partisan of the House of Stuart to make the submission which that 
would have implied to the Hanover dynasty. On their pressing the advice 
with some importunity, he declared, in a tone which precluded all further 
argument, that rather than do so, he would submit to be taken and hanged 
at the bar before the face of those judges by whom he was soon to be tried. 

It would appear that some effort was made by his wife and other friends 
to intercede in his behalf with the government. On the 28th of September, 
he writes that he is ' in good health, heart, and spirits.' ' If it is my fate,' 
says he, ' to go to the scaffold, I daresay that I'll go as a Christian and a 
man of honour ought to do. But it is possible that a broken ill-used major 
may be a colonel before he dies.' All hope of pardon was soon proved to be 
vain : the government could not forgive one who had acted so remarkable a 
part in the late contest, and who had been taken with the blood of its ser- 
vants still streaming from his sword. On the 17th of October, he addressed 
the following farewell letter to one of his friends in Edinburgh : — ' My dear 
Sir, I received yours yesterday, and as I am to die to-morrow, this is my last 
farewell to you. May God reward you for your services to me from time to 
time, and may God restore my dear Prince, and receive my soul at the hour 
of death. You'll manage what money Mr Stewart is due me as you see 
proper ; for my poor wife will want money much, to pay her rents and other 
debts. I conclude with my blessings to yourself and to all the honourable 
honest ladies of my acquaintance in Edinburgh, and to all other friends in 
general, and in particular those of the castle, and I am with love and affec- 
tion, my dear sir, yours till death. Donald Macdonnell.' 

It is impossible to contemplate the fate of a man like Tiendrish without a 
feeling of interest. In a speech which he delivered on the scaffold, he de- 



394 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Brand, and Hugh Cameron. They were executed, accord- 
ing* to order, with all those circumstances of barbarity which 
had already attended the former executions. Out of the 
ten who were appointed to die at Brampton, only six even- 
tually suffered — James Innes, Patrick Lindsay, Bonald Mac- 
donald, Thomas Park, Peter Taylor, and Michael Delard— 
one having died in prison, and the remaining three having 
been reprieved, Mercy was also extended to three of the 
ten who were designed for execution at Penrith. The 
names of those who suffered at the latter place were Robert 
Lyon, 1 David Home, Andrew Swan, James Harvie, John 
Robottom, Philip Hunt, and Valentine Holt. 

In addition to the twenty-two persons thus executed in 
the west of England, other twenty-two suffered at the city 
of York; namely, on the 1st of November, Captain George 
Hamilton, Daniel Fraser, Edward Clavering, Charles Gor- 
don, Benjamin Mason, James Main, William Collony, 
William Dempsy, Angus Macdonald, and James Sparks ; 
on the 8th of the same'month, David Roe, William Hunter, 
John Endsworth, John Maclean, John Macgregor, Simon 
Mackenzie, Alexander Parker, Thomas Macginnes, Archi- 
bald Kennedy, James Thomson, and Michael Brady; and 
on the 15th, James Reid. Eleven more were executed at 
Carlisle on the 15th of November ; namely, Sir Archibald 
Primrose of Dunnipace, 2 Charles Gordon of Terperse, Patrick 

clared, ' It was principle, and a thorough conviction of its being my duty 
to God, my injured king, and oppressed country, which engaged me to take 
up arms under the standard and magnanimous conduct of his Royal Highness 
Charles Prince of Wales : I solemnly declare I had no by-views in drawing 
my sword in that just and honourable cause.' 

1 Mr Lyon was a young presbyter of the Episcopal church of Scotland, and 
apparently connected with Perthshire. Under a strong religious sense of 
duty, particularly with regard to the suffering church to which he belonged, 
he had joined the expedition, in which he had borne all his own charges. 
The speech pronounced by him on the scaffold was reprinted in the 25th 
number of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, on account of the well-ex- 
pressed and well-reasoned view which it gives of the opinions by which a large 
portion of Prince Charles's adherents were actuated. In Mr Forbes's collec- 
tion, besides a copy of this able document, there is one of a tenderer kind, a 
letter written to his mother and sister in contemplation of death — not seeking, 
but giving consolation. Mr Forbes has also bound up amongst his papers 
a copy of ' the Communion Office for the use of the Church of Scotland,' as 

* authorised by K. Charles I., anno 1636,' being, as Mr Forbes takes care to 
note, * the identical copy which the Rev. Mr Robert Lyon made use of in 
consecrating the Holy Eucharist in Carlisle Castle,' where ' he had the hap- 
piness to communicate above fifty of his fellow-prisoners, amongst whom 
were Mr Thomas Coppock, the English clergyman, and Arnprior.' 

2 In Mr Forbes's collections, is a letter written by Sir Archibald on the day 
of his death to his sister, commending to her care his wife and children, and 
regretting nothing but their condition and his own giving way so far to bad 
advice as to have pleaded guilty in the hope of pardon. ' This day,' he says, 

* I am to suffer for my religion, my Prince, and my country : for each of 



TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 395 

Murray, goldsmith in Stirling, Patrick Keir, Alexander 
Stevenson, Robert Keid, John Wallace, James Mitchell, 
Molineux Eaton, Thomas Hays, and Barnaby Matthews. 

All these unhappy individuals are said to have behaved, 
throughout the last trying scene, with a degree of decent 
firmness which surprised the beholders. Every one of them 
continued till his last moment to justify the cause which had 
brought him to the scaffold, and some even declared that, if 
set at liberty, they would act in the same way as they had 
done. They all prayed in their last moments for the exiled 
royal family, particularly for Prince Charles, whom they 
concurred in representing as a pattern of all manly excel- 
lence, and as a person calculated to render the nation 
happy, should it ever have the good fortune to see him 
restored. 

The lives of nearly eighty persons had now been de- 
stroyed, in atonement of the terror into which the state had 
been thrown by the insurrection. There yet remained, how- 
ever, a few individuals, who, having excited the displeasure 
of government in a peculiar degree, were marked as unfit 
for pardon. The first of these was Charles Ratcliffe, 
younger brother to the Earl of Derwentwater, who had 
been executed in 1716 ; he had himself only evaded 
the same fate, at that time, by making his escape from 
Newgate. This gentleman, taking upon himself the title 
of Earl of Derwentwater, was made prisoner, in November 
1745, on board a French vessel on its way to Scotland with 
supplies for Prince Charles. After lying a year in confine- 
ment, he was brought up to the bar of the King's Bench 
(November 21, 1746), when the sentence which had been 
passed thirty years before was again read to him. He en- 
deavoured to perplex the court regarding his identity, but 
it was established satisfactorily, it is said, by the barber 
who had shaved him when in the Tower in 1716, and he 
was condemned to be executed on the 8th of December. 
That day he came upon the scaffold in a handsome dress, 
and conducted himself throughout the dreadful scene with 
a manly courage and proud bearing, which seemed to indi- 

these I wish I had a thousand lives to spend.' There is also a letter to the 
same lady, from Mr James Wright, writer in Edinburgh, enclosing the above, 
and dated 'Carlisle, November 15, four o'clock in the afternoon,' being a 
very short while after the death of Sir Archibald. ' Madam,' he says, 
* your brother, who is no more, delivered me this immediately before he suf- 
fered. I waited on him to the last, and with some other friends witnessed 
his interment in St Cuthbert's churchyard. He lies on the north side of the 
church, within four yards of the second window from the steeple. Mr 
Gordon of Terperse, and Patrick Murray, goldsmith, lie just by him. God 
Almighty support his disconsolate lady and all his relations.' 



396 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

cate that he held the malice of his enemies and the stroke 
of death in equal scorn. 

The last of all the martyrs, as they were styled by their 
own party, was Lord Lovat. This singular old man was 
impeached by the House of Commons on the 11th of De- 
cember ; and his trial took place before the House of Peers 
on the 9th of March 1747 and several successive days. On 
this momentous occasion he seems to have exerted all the 
talents for dissimulation and chicanery which had, up to 
this time, served him so well. But the evidence produced 
against him was of that kind which no artifice could inva- 
lidate. He was confronted with a prodigious number of 
letters which he had written to the exiled family, and in 
particular to the young chevalier, promising* them his 
assistance, and negotiating the proposed elevation of his 
family to a dukedom. These had been procured from 
Murray of Broughton, who, preferring to live the life of a 
dog to dying the death of a man, had engaged with govern- 
ment to make all the discoveries in his power for his own 
pardon. 1 Lovat could make no effective stand against such 
documents, and although he uttered an exculpatory and 
palliative speech of some eloquence, he was condemned to 
die. 

During the space of a week which intervened between his 
sentence and its execution, he maintained, without the least 
interruption, that flow of animal spirits and lively conversa- 
tion for which he had been so remarkable throughout his 
life. He talked to the people about him of his approaching 
death as he would have talked of a journey which he de- 
signed to take, and he made the circumstances which were 
to attend it the subject of innumerable witticisms and playful 
remarks. When informed, in the forenoon before he left 
the prison, that a scaffold had fallen near the place of execu- 
tion, by which many persons were killed and maimed, he 
only remarked, 'The mair mischief, the better sport.' 
Though so weak as to require the assistance of two per- 
sons in mounting the scaffold, he there maintained a show 

1 The Rev. Mr Forbes relates that Dr Burton of York informed him that, 
in September 1746, he (Dr Burton) asked Mr iEneas Macdonald, then in 
confinement in London, ' his opinion of Mr John Murray of Broughton, par- 
ticularly whether he entertained any fears about his turning evidence, as the 
common talk in London gave it out. Mr Maedonald's answer was, that he 
believed Mr Murray to be so honest between man and man, that in private 
life he would not be guilty of a dirty or dishonest action ; but then (he said) 
he knew him to be such a coward, and to be possessed with such a fear of 
death, that (for his own part) he was much afraid Mr Murray might be 
brought the length of doing anything to save a wretched life.' — Lyon in 
Mourning, iii. 522. 



PRINCE CHARLES IN FRANCE. 397 

of indifference to death. He felt the edge of the axe, and 
expressed himself satisfied with its sharpness. He called 
the executioner, gave him ten guineas, and told him to do 
his duty with firmness and accuracy ; adding, that he would 
be very angry with him if he should hack and mangle his 
shoulders. He professed to die in the Roman Catholic faith, 
and spent some time in devotion. As if to be in character 
to the very last, he resigned his breath with the almost 
sacred words upon his lips, i Duke et decorum est pro patrid 
mori. 7 



CHAPTEE XXX. 

PRINCE CHARLES IN FRANCE. 

* Come, poor remains of friends, rest on this rock.' 

Shakspeare. 

The vessels which had taken the Prince and his friends 
on board at Lochnanuagh, on the 20th of September, made 
a prosperous voyage to the coast of France. It was the 
Prince's original intention to proceed to Nantes ; and if he 
had done so, he would probably have encountered a British 
squadron under Admiral Lestock, then cruising off the coast 
of Bretagne. Having altered his course, and been chased 
by two English sloops of war, from which he escaped in a 
thick fog, he landed, on Monday the 29th of September 
(10th October, new style), at Roscoff, near Morlaix, whence 
he immediately wrote letters to his brother and father, in- 
forming them of his safety. 

He arrived in France, full of the ideas which had pos- 
sessed him immediately after the battle of Culloden respect- 
ing a new and effectual expedition to be fitted out in his 
behalf by the French government. It was his wish imme- 
diately to see the king, in order to use his influence with 
him to obtain a proper armament. He therefore stopped 
only two days at Morlaix for rest, and then set out for 
Paris. Near the city he was met by a band of young 
noblemen, headed by his brother, who, on meeting him, did 
not at first know him, on account of the change his person 
had undergone, being now ' broader and fatter ' than for- 
merly ; but, on recognising him, fell on his neck and wel- 
comed him in the most affectionate manner. The govern- 
ment had ordered the castle of St Antoine to be fitted up 
for his reception, but they were not disposed to receive him 



398 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

openly as the Prince Regent of Great Britain ; and when he 
formally applied for an interview with the king", then at 
Fontainebleau, he was not favoured with a public audience, 
but permitted to come in only a comparatively private or 
incognito fashion. The truth is, the French had been un- 
fortunate in the war, particularly by sea, and already the 
necessity of suing* for peace with Great Britain was begin- 
ning" to be apprehended. Louis was anxious to give the 
British court as little further cause of offence as possible. 
At the same time, it was not in his nature not to admire the 
singular career of the Prince, and to wish him well. 

Charles, since he was not allowed a nominally public re- 
ception in his assumed character, resolved to make his visit, 
to appearance, as public as possible. He therefore went to 
Fontainebleau in a splendid equipage and magnificent dress, 
attended by other carriages, in which were the Lords Elcho 
and Ogilvie, Mr Kelly his secretary, the elder Locheil, and 
others of his principal friends. The king, who now saw 
him for the first time in his life, met him with a warm 
embrace, and a complimentary speech worthy of the nation 
most remarkable for such addresses : — ' Mon tres cher Prince, 
je rends grace au ciel, qui me donne le plaisir extreme de vous 
voir arrive en bonne sante, apres tant de fatigues et de dan- 
gers. Vous avez fait voir que toutes les grandes qualites 
des heros et des philosophes se trouvent unies en vous ; et 
j'espere qu'un de ces jours vous recevr'ez la recompense 
d'une merite si extraordinaire/ 1 After staying a little while 
with the king, the Prince passed to the apartment of the 
queen, who also gave him a kind reception. The whole 
court flocked about him to pay their congratulations, and he 
and his friends that evening supped in the palace. 

The government had already taken into consideration the 
sad state of the Scottish officers who had landed in France, 
and had ordered the sum of thirty-four thousand livres to 
be distributed amongst them according to their rank. After- 
wards the further sum of twenty-eight thousand nine hun- 
dred was given to those officers who had landed with the 
Prince, young Locheil getting four thousand, his father 
three thousand, Lochgarry three thousand, John Roy Stuart 
three thousand, and others in proportion to their rank. 
The command of a regiment was also conferred on Lord 

1 * My dearest Prince, I thank Heaven for the extreme pleasure it gives 
me to see you returned in safety, after so many fatigues and dangers. You 
have proved that all the great qualities of the heroes and philosophers are 
united in you ; and I hope that one day you will receive the reward of such 
extraordinary merit.' 



PRINCE CHARLES IN FRANCE. 399 

Ogilvie. But when Charles made advances with respect to 
a new expedition, he found himself treated with coldness- 
After two interviews with the king", he (November 10th) 
presented a memorial, earnestly calling his majesty's atten- 
tion to the wish nearest his heart. Scotland, he said, was on 
the brink of ruin, and the severity of the government had 
occasioned such discontent, that if he were again to land 
in it with a proper armament, the number of his adherents 
would be tripled. He had become convinced, from his late 
campaign, that only a moderate army of regular troops was 
required to enable the people of Great Britain to shake off 
the yoke under which they groaned ; eighteen or twenty 
thousand men were sufficient, and these he requested from 
the French government. No attention seems to have been 
paid to his demand, which the government probably found 
itself in no condition to comply with. It is to be remarked, 
that the idea of a renewal of the late war was not confined 
to his own ambitious mind, but was greatly encouraged 
by his Scottish friends, and by none more eagerly than by 
young Locheil, who for some time refused to take a French 
regiment which was offered to him, lest his doing so might 
propagate a notion that the Prince had little hopes of re- 
newed aid from France. Charles also wrote at this juncture 
to the king of Spain, condoling with him on the death of 
his lately deceased father, Philip V., and expressing a strong 
hope that the friendship he had enjoyed from that monarch 
would be continued by his successor. 

As the reluctance *of the French court to befriend him 
actively became more apparent to Charles, he lost his for- 
mer tone of moderation. Every high passion, on being 
thwarted in its object, raises irritation, and it is from this 
time that we are to date a revolution in Charles's character 
which has made it almost impossible to recognise, in his 
middle life and age, the manly, clement, and heroic youth 
who led the Highland army in 1745. His father earnestly 
remonstrated against the manner in which he acted towards 
the court of France, but in vain. Neither did he take any 
counsel from the many able and high-principled Scottish 
officers who were now in Paris : almost his sole adviser was 
his secretary Kelly, who seems to have been eminently 
unworthy of the confidence reposed in him. 

About the end of January (1747) he left Paris, and re- 
tired to Avignon, much against the will of his friends, who 
regarded the step as an admission that his cause was hope- 
less. But in reality he contemplated a secret journey to 
Madrid, in order to try if Ferdinand VI. would give those 



400 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

supplies which he could not obtain in France. Travelling* 
very privately, he reached the Spanish capital early in 
March, and met with a civil reception from the new 
monarch, of whom he asked aid in men, arms, and ships 
with provisions, towards a new expedition. He was in- 
formed in answer that Spain could at present spare no 
ships : the other demands were spoken of in a manner 
which led him to suppose that they would be granted ; 
but ultimately he found his application unavailing*. He 
returned to Paris on the 24th of March. 

He now renewed his applications to the French court, but 
still without success. Within twenty days from his return 
to Paris, he is found deliberating on the propriety of pro- 
posing* marriage to the Czarina 1 of Eussia, with a view to 
her giving him the required aid — a project from which his 
father dissuaded him, as not in the least likely to be suc- 
cessful. All this procedure shows the extreme eagerness 
which possessed him to be again at the head of an expedi- 
tion in Britain, and the sense he had of the value of the 
present crisis. Two things he dreaded above all as likely 
to preclude a new attempt — a peace between France and 
England, which the French people eagerly desired, and 
the completion of the subjugation and disarmment of the 
Scottish Highlanders by the British government — an event 
certain to give great discouragement to his English friends, 
as they depended much on the warlike character of that 
people for the means of bringing about a restoration. It 
is no wonder, then, that Charles chafed and groaned under 
the difficulties which beset him. He saw what he thought 
the last opportunity of regaining the British crown pass- 
ing before him, and was unable to take advantage of it, 
because, as he thought, a few selfish ministers were in- 
different to his interests in common with those of their 
own countries. These views were not his own only. We 
find young Locheil, in February 1747, eagerly urging a 
new expedition, on however small a scale, to Scotland, on 
the ground that, if undertaken now, it would find the 
people unsubdued and still armed, as well as eager to save 
their country from the slavery to which the existing go- 
vernment seemed to have doomed it. 

The spring passed, and summer arrived, and still there 
was no appearance of a grant of troops or arms on the part 
of France. The government pressed a large pension on the 
Prince, but he refused to accept it. It was with difficulty 

i Elizabeth I., daughter of Peter the Great. She was eleven years the 
senior of Prince Charles. 



PRINCE CHARLES IN FRANCE. 401 

they could even induce young Locheil to take the command 
of a regiment. It was at this particular time (June 1747), 
when he was suffering all the ills attending on those who 
wait for the favour of courts, that his brother Henry, with 
his father's full consent, became an ecclesiastic, and accepted 
a cardinal's hat from the pope. Charles heard with frenzy 
of a proceeding by which he knew that his cause would he 
deeply injured in Britain, and which, moreover, was sure 
to be received everywhere as a tacit acknowledgment on the 
part of the family that his views on the crown were now 
hopeless. He had previously regarded his brother with 
great affection, but he now cast him from his bosom. Even 
his father he could scarcely forgive for his share in so fatal 
a step. Lord George Murray at this time came to Paris 
to pay his respects to him ; but the Prince, though in his 
wanderings he had spoken mildly of Lord George, was now 
imbittered against him ; and this honourable man, who had 
sacrificed his country and family prospects in his cause, was 
obliged to retire from France not only without seeing him, 
but under some dread lest the Prince should cause him to 
be arrested. 1 

1 It was probably about the time when the hopes of renewed assistance 
from France were declining, that Mr William Hamilton of Bangour wrote 
the following imitation of the Scottish version of the 137th psalm— a com- 
position of much more than his usual energy, and concluding with an 
almost prophetic malediction :— 

On Gallia's shore we sat and wept, 

When Scotland we thought on, 
Robbed of her bravest sons, and all 

Her ancient spirit gone. 
* Revenge,' the sons of Gallia said, 

' Revenge your native land : 
Already your insulting foes 

Crowd the Batavian strand.' 
How shall the sons of freedom e'er 

For foreign conquest fight ? 
For power how wield the sword, unsheathed 

For liberty and right ? 
If thee, oh Scotland, I forget, 

Even with my latest breath, 
May foul dishonour stain my name, 

And bring a coward's death ! 
May sad remorse of fancied guilt 

My future days employ, 
If all thy sacred rights are not 

Above my chiefest joy. « 

Remember England's children, Lord, 

Who on Drummossie* day, 
Deaf to the voice of kindred love, 

* Raze, raze it quite,' did say. 



* Drummossie, another name for the muir of Culloden. 
VOL. V. Z 



402 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Months passed on, during which the proceedings of the 
Prince came little to the knowledge of his father or the 
public. That secretiveness which he had shown in the 
Highlands when passing from one retreat and one set of 
friends to another, now reappeared, and it marked much of 
his future career. It has been said that he rejoiced in the 
victories gained by the British in the course of the war, 
rather than in those gained by the French ; but this must be 
taken with limitation. There is extant a letter in which he 
congratulated Louis XV. on the victory of Lafelt. While 
trusting only to obscure, and, it has been said, worthless 
counsellors, there is indubitable evidence that he freely gave 
from his means to relieve and support the other gentlemen 
of his party who had taken refuge in France. In an account 
current with his banker, Mr George Waters, junior, we find 
repeated disbursements of large sums to Clanranald, Ard- 
shiel, Gordon of Glenbucket, Lord Nairn, and others of 
equal or less note. 1 The unfortunate propensity to drink- 
ing, by which his last years were so much clouded, is first 
noticed in 1747, in an unsigned letter to Mr William Mur- 
ray (titular Lord Dunbar) ; but the reader has seen proof 
that this taste was awakened in the course of his Highland 
adventures, being probably attributable in part to the hard- 
ships he then suffered, and partly to the effect of the evil 
customs of the country working upon one previously un- 
accustomed to liquor, and unprepared to indulge in it, par- 
ticularly under such circumstances, without contracting an 
uncontrollable liking for it. 2 

And thou, proud Gallia, faithless friend, 

Whose ruin is not far, 
Just Heaven on thy devoted head 

Pour all the woes of war. 

When thou thy slaughtered little ones 

And ravished dames shall see, 
Such help, such pity, mayst thou have 

As Scotland had from thee ! 

1 In a letter to his father, Paris, December 19, 1746, he says, * I suppose 
O'Brien has already given an account to you of what pains I am at, and what 
has been done concerning the poor Scotch. I told Marquis D'Argenson 
t'other day how sensible I was at the king's goodness for what he has done 
for them, and that I would go, if necessary, upon my knees for them, but 
that I would never ask anything for myself; for I came only into this 
country to do what I could for my poor country, and not for myself.' 

2 Besides the various notices of his liking for ardent spirits given in the 
chapters descriptive of his wanderings, one or two more may here be noted 
from the manuscript collections of the Rev. Mr Forbes. In a journal by 
young Clanranald, Glenaladale, &c. {Lyon in Mourning, iii. 589) it is stated 
that, when in the forest-house of Glencoridale in South Uist, * he would step 
into a by-chamber, which served as a pantry, and, when he stood in need of 
it, put the bottle of brandy to his head without ceremony.' In the Rev. Mr 



PRINCE CHARLES IN FRANCE. 403 

In the spring* of 1748, the inclination of France for peace 
assumed a definite form, and proposals being in the first 
place submitted by the king, it was agreed by the powers 
at war to hold a congress at Aix-la-Chapelle. Charles 
beheld this transaction as the death-warrant of all his im- 
mediate hopes ; but, blinded by passionate violence, he had 
not the prudence to submit with resignation to a turn of 
affairs altogether beyond his control. During the summer, 
while the negotiations were going on, it was expected that 
he would quietly retire from France, as there could be no 
doubt that one of the stipulations would bind the king to 
afford him no longer an asylum. On the contrary, he 
hired a handsome house on the Quai Theatin, and ordered 
such furnishings for it as marked a determination to remain 
in Paris. When any one spoke of the treaty, he affected 
indifference, and changed the subject. Nor was this all. 
He caused a medal to be struck, with his head on one side, 
and on the other a quantity of shipping, with the words, 
Amor et spes Britannia — (' The love and hope of Britain 7 ) — 
a deliberate insult to the French government, which had 
suffered so much from the British marine force. The 
ministers deeply resented this act, and urged the king to 
take notice of it ; but he declined doing so, apparently from 
a wish not to exasperate the Prince any further. The 
Prince of Conti, a very proud noble, soon after meeting 
Charles in the Luxembourg gardens, addressed him with 

Forties's report of conversations which he had with Kingshurgh and his wife 
(Lyon, ii. 209), there is a passage referring to the night which Charles spent 
in their house :— * The Prince ate four roasted eggs, some collops, plenty of 
bread and butter, and— to use the words of Mrs Macdonald— " the deil a drap 
did he want of twa bottles of sma' beer ; God do him good o't ; for weel I wat 
he had my blessing to gae doun wi't." After he had made a plentiful supper, 
he called for a dram, and when the bottle of brandy was brought, he said he 
would fill the glass for himself, " for," said he, "J have learned in my skulking 
to take a hearty dram." He filled up a bumper, and drank it off to the happi- 
ness and prosperity of his landlord and landlady.' These, and other like cir- 
cumstances, are mentioned by the reporters, without apparently the remotest 
idea that the habits of the Prince were in danger of being permanently af- 
fected ; but their value as testimony is not the worse on that account. I in- 
troduce them here in a spirit far from that of blame. Charles had previously, 
like most natives of southern Europe, been unaccustomed to liquor. On such 
a person the drinking customs of the people amongst whom he fell were cal- 
culated to have a fatal effect. It would also appear, from what we every day 
see amongst the miserably poor, that there is a condition of defective physical 
comfort in which alcohol presents itself as a remedy and compensation, and 
in that character is scarcely to be resisted by human weakness. This law is 
of course as ready to operate upon a prince, suddenly reduced to personal 
misery, as upon a wretch who has long known it, and perhaps even more so. 
Probably the habits originally contracted under physical discomfort were, 
in the Prince's case, revived and confirmed afterwards under the anguish of 
a disappointed and exasperated spirit, which had unfortunately not been 
trained to look for superior consolations. 



404 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

an air of pleasantry, but with a latent sneer, on this sub- 
ject. The device, he said, was not very applicable, for the 
British navy had not proved very friendly to him. ' Cela 
est vrai, prince,' said Charles; 'mais je suis non obstant 
Pami de la flotte contre tous ses ennemis ; comme je 
regarderai toujours la gloire d'Angleterre comme lamienne, 
et sa gloire est dans sa flotte ! ' l He appears in a more 
respectable light in the protest for a reservation of his 
rights which he caused to be presented to the represen- 
tatives of the various powers met at Aix-la-Chapelle. This 
document, dated at Paris July 16th, after alluding to the 
wrongs suffered by his house, and stating the powers 
granted him by his father, protests c against all which may 
be said, done, or stipulated in the assembly to the preju- 
dice and diminution of the lawful rights of our most 
honoured father and lord, of our own, of the princes or 
princesses that are or will be born of our royal house.' 
f We declare,' it proceeds, ' that we regard, and always will 
regard, as null, void, and of no effect, everything that may 
be statuted or stipulated which may tend to the acknow- 
ledgment of any other person whatsoever as sovereign of 
the kingdoms of Great Britain, besides the person of the 
most high and most excellent prince, James the Third, our 
most honoured lord and father, and, in default of him, the 
person of the nearest heir, agreeably to the fundamental 
laws of Great Britain.' Finally, 'we declare to all the sub- 
jects of our most honoured lord and father, and more par- 
ticularly to those who have given us recently shining 
proofs of their attachment to the interests of our royal 
family, and to the primitive constitution of their country, 
that nothing shall ever alter the lively and sincere love 
which our birth inspires us with for them ; and that the 
just gratitude which we have for their fidelity, zeal, and 
courage, shall never be effaced from our heart. That so 
far from listening to any proposition that tends to destroy 
or weaken the indissoluble ties which unite us, we look, 
and always will look, upon ourselves as under the most in- 
timate and indispensable obligation to be constantly atten- 
tive to all that may contribute to their happiness, and that 
we shall always be ready to spill the very last drop of our 
blood to deliver them from a foreign yoke.' 2 M. Montes- 
quieu, to whom Charles submitted a copy of this protest, 

1 ' That is very true, prince ; but nevertheless I am a friend to the navy 
against all enemies whatever, as I shall always look upon the glory of Eng- 
land as my own, and her glory is in her navy.' 

2 These extracts are from a translation of the French original in the Rev. 
Mr Forbes's collection of papers. 



PRINCE CHARLES IN FRANCE. 405 

complimented him on it, as written with simplicity, with 
dignity, and even with eloquence. 

He enclosed a copy of the paper to the king of France, 
assuring him that, while obliged thus to defend his rights, 
he entertained the greatest respect for his majesty's sacred 
person, and hoped never to forfeit his friendship. 

The treaty, meanwhile, was known to contain a clause 
stipulating that Charles should no longer reside in France. 
His voluntary retirement from the kingdom was every day 
looked for; but in vain. When the king perceived that 
Charles made no motion to leave his dominions, he des- 
patched the Cardinal de Tencin with instructions to hint 
to him, in as delicate a manner as possible, the necessity of 
his taking that step. The cardinal performed his office 
with the greatest discretion, and endeavoured with all his 
eloquence to palliate the conduct of his master. But 
Charles treated him only with evasive answers, and he was 
obliged to withdraw without having obtained any satisfac- 
tory avowal of his Royal Highnesses intentions. The king 
waited for some days, in the hope that Charles would 
depart, but was then obliged to despatch another messen- 
ger with still more urgent intreaties. The person selected 
for this purpose was the Duke de Gesvres, governor of 
Paris, who, besides instructions to urge his departure, 
carried a carte blanche, which the Prince was requested 
to fill up with any sum he might please to demand as 
a pension, in consideration of his obeying the king's 
wishes. When this ambassador disclosed his proposals to 
Charles, he is said to have treated them with unequivocal 
marks of contempt, saying that ' pensions were quite out of 
the question in the present case, and that he only wished 
the king to keep his word.' The duke pointed out the 
necessity of the negotiations which required his departure 
from France ; but Charles, on the other hand, insisted upon 
the previous treaty between his most Christian majesty and 
himself, by which they had become mutual allies. The 
Duke de Gesvres being thus unsuccessful, the Count de 
Maurepas and the pope's nuncio were one after another 
sent upon the same errand, and the king even wrote a letter 
to him with his own hand ; but all without effect. 

As no attempt was made by either party to conceal these 
strange proceedings, they soon became known over Europe. 
In Paris they excited a degree of interest such as no public 
event was ever before known to occasion. For a person in 
such peculiar circumstances to thwart the intentions, and 
disregard the power, of the Grand Monarch, was esteemed 



406 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

in that region a most extraordinary instance of daring. 
His exploits in Scotland, and the fascinating graces of his 
person, had previously disposed the Parisians to an extra- 
vagant degree of admiration, and it was completed when 
to these charms was added that arising from his unmerited 
distresses. He now became an object of even more attrac- 
tion than the king himself. Whenever he appeared upon 
the public walks, the whole company followed him. When 
he entered the theatre, he became the sole spectacle of the 
place. On all occasions he seemed the only person who 
was insensible to the sorrows of his fate; and while he 
talked with his usual gaiety to the young noblemen who 
surrounded him, no one could speak of him without ad- 
miration, and some could not behold him without tears. 

The public feeling so liberally excited in his favour was 
by no means agreeable to the king, and far less to the 
ministry. There were other personages whom it yet further 
offended. These were the Earl of Sussex and Lord Cath- 
cart, two British noblemen, then residing in Paris as hos- 
tages to guarantee the restoration of Cape Breton to its 
original proprietors the French, in terms of the treaty. 
Charles was known to have commented with bitterness 
upon the meanness of the British government in giving 
hostages to France ; and the two noblemen could not help, 
moreover, feeling personally piqued at the respect which 
was everywhere shown to the public enemy of their 
country, while they themselves were treated with ill- 
suppressed contempt. They therefore complained to the 
French monarch that there was one important article of 
the treaty which he had not fulfilled. His majesty gave 
them for answer that he only waited the return of a mes- 
senger from Rome, with an answer to a letter which he had 
written to the old Pretender, demanding that Charles 
should be withdrawn, by paternal authority, from the king- 
dom, before taking active measures to that effect. 

The messenger mentioned by the king returned on the 
9th of December (1748) with a letter from the old chevalier, 
enclosing another, under a flying seal, addressed to his son, 
in which he commanded the Prince to obey the king's 
wishes. His majesty, after having read the last epistle, 
sent it to Charles, by way of giving him a last chance of 
declaring his submission to the royal authority ; but the 
inflexible Prince thought proper to hold out even against 
his father's commands. He declared openly that no pen- 
sions, promises, or advantages whatever should induce him 
to renounce his just rights ; that, on the contrary, he was 



PRINCE CHARLES IN FRANCE. 407 

resolved to consecrate the last moments of his life to their 
recovery. The king no sooner learned that he was still 
unwilling to depart, than he called a council of state, where 
it was determined to arrest him, and carry him out of the 
kingdom by force. Louis was still so averse to treat his 
unfortunate ally with disrespect, and still entertained so 
much regard for him, that when the order for his arrest 
was presented for signature, he exclaimed, with sorrow 
which we may hope was not affected, ' Ah, pauvre prince ! 
qu'il est difficile pour un roi d'etre un veritable ami ! ' — ( ( Ah, 
poor prince! how difficult it is for a king to be a true 
friend !') The order was signed at three o'clock in the 
afternoon, but it was blazed all over Paris before the 
evening. A person of the Prince's retinue heard and 
carried him the intelligence, but he affected not to believe 
it. Next day (December 10), as he was walking in the 
Tuilleries, a person of condition informed him that he 
would certainly be seized that very day if he did not pre- 
vent it by an immediate departure; but, resolved to put 
the government to the last extremity, he treated the intel- 
ligence as chimerical, and turning to one of his followers, 
ordered a box to be hired for him that night at the opera. 

The preparations made for his arrest were upon a scale 
proportioned to the importance of his character, or rather 
were dictated by the extent of public favour which he was 
supposed to enjoy. No fewer than twelve hundred of the 
guards were drawn out and posted in the court of the 
Palais-Royal ; a great number of sergeants and grenadiers, 
armed in cuirasses and helmets, filled the passage of the 
opera-house ; the guet, or city police, were stationed in the 
streets to stop all carriages. The sergeants of the grena- 
diers, as the most intrepid, were selected to seize the 
Prince. Two companies of grenadiers took post in the 
courtyard of the kitchens, where the Duke de Biron, com- 
mander of the French guards, and who was commissioned 
to superintend, waited in a coach, disguised, to see the issue 
of the enterprise. The mousquetairs had orders to be ready 
to mount on horseback ; troops were posted upon the road 
from the Palais-Royal to the state-prison of Vincennes, in 
which the Prince was to be disposed. Hatchets and 
scaling-ladders were prepared, and locksmiths directed to 
attend, in order to take his Royal Highness by escalade, in 
case he should throw himself into some house, and there 
attempt to stand a siege. A physician and three surgeons, 
moreover, were ordered to be in readiness to dress whoever 
might be wounded. 



408 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Into this well-prepared and formidable trap Charles 
entered with all the unthinking* boldness of a desperate 
man. Scorning" the repeated warning's he had received, 
and disregarding a friendly voice which told him, as he 
passed along* in his carriage, that the opera-house was 
beset, he drove up as usual to that place; where he no 
sooner alighted on the ground, than he was surrounded by 
six sergeants dressed in plain clothes, who seized his per- 
son ; one taking care of each limb, while other two crossed 
their arms, and bore him oif the street into the courtyard 
of the Palais-Royal ; the soldiers in the meantime keeping 
off the crowd with fixed bayonets, and seizing the few per- 
sons who attended him. When he was brought into the 
courtyard, Major de Vaudreuil, who had been deputed to 
act by the Duke de Biron, approached his Royal Highness 
and said, ' Prince, your arms : I arrest you in the name of 
the king.' Charles immediately presented his sword ; but 
that not satisfying his captors, they searched his person, 
and found a pair of pistols and a poniard, together with a 
penknife and a book, all of which they removed. They 
then bound him with silk cord, of which the duke had pro- 
vided ten ells on purpose, and hurried him into a hired 
coach, which was immediately driven off, attended by a 
strong guard. Another party in the meantime entered his 
palace, and arrested all his followers and servants, who 
were immediately conveyed to the Bastile, though soon 
afterwards liberated. Charles was conveyed to the castle 
of Vincennes, and thrust into an upper room of narrow 
dimensions, 1 where he was left to seek repose, attended 
by only a single friend — the faithful Neil Mackechan, 
who, with Flora Macdonald, had accompanied him in his 
journey through Skye. 2 So long as he was in the presence 
of the soldiers, or any officers of the French government, 
he had maintained a lofty air, and spoken in a haughty 
tone, as if to show that he was superior to his misfortunes ; 
but when finally left in this desolate chamber, with only a 
friend to observe him, he gave way to the tumult of pain- 
ful feeling which agitated his breast. Throwing himself 
upon a chair, according to the report of Mackechan, as 
afterwards communicated to a family in Skye, he elasped 

1 The account of the Prince's seizure is from ' An Authentic Account of 
the Young Chevalier in France,' London, 1749. It is supported by a letter 
amongst the Stuart Papers, Browne's Appendix, No. clxviii. 

2 Neil Mackechan or Macdonald had been, at the Prince's desire, appointed 
a lieutenant in Lord Ogiivie's regiment of the Scotch Brigade in the service 
of France. He subsequently had a pension of 300 livres per annum.— Letter 
of Colonel John Macdonald {son of Flora), MS., in possession of the author. 



MEASURES FOR PREVENTION, &C. 409 

his hands together, and bursting 1 into tears, exclaimed, 
1 Ah, my faithful mountaineers ! you would never have 
treated me thus ! Would I were still with you ! ' — his mind 
apparently reverting at this moment of peculiar distress to 
the transient glories of his late brilliant though unhappy 
enterprise. 

Charles was kept in confinement till the 15th, when, 
having given his parole that he would not return to the 
French dominions, he was taken from Yincennes, and 
carried by easy stages, under a guard, to Avignon. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

MEASURES FOR PREVENTION OF FURTHER DISTURBANCES. 

* Sir, I have heard another story- 
He was a most confounded Tory, 
And grew, or he is much belied, 
Extremely dull before he died.' 

In the parliamentary session of 1747, several measures 
were brought forward and passed, for the purpose of pre- 
venting future disturbance on account of the succession. 

The first was one of mercy, an act of indemnity granting 
pardon to all who still survived of the late offenders, except- 
ing about eighty persons mentioned by name, these being 
generally individuals of some note in the insurrection, or 
who had been connected with it. 1 At the same time that this 

1 Of noblemen excepted, there were the Earls of Traquair and Clancarty; 
of baronets, Sir James Steuart, Sir John Douglas, Sir James Harrington, Sir 
James Campbell, Sir William Dunbar, and Sir Alexander Bannerman ; of 
Highland chiefs and gentlemen of note, Macdonnell of Glengarry, Macleod 
of Raasay, Macgregor of Glengyle, Grant of Glenmorriston, Robertson of 
Struan, Chisholm of Comar, Drummond of Bochaldy, Fraser of Foyers, 
Fraserof Gortuleg, Fraser of Browick, iEneas and James Macdonald, brothers 
to the late Kinlochmoidart, Stuart of Kynnachin, Robertson of Blairfetty, 
Robertson of Faskally, and Robert Murray (originally Macgregor) of Glencar- 
nock ; of Lowland gentlemen of note, Archibald Stuart, late Lord Provost of 
Edinburgh, Thomas Blair of Glasclune, James Carnegy of Boysack, Charles 
Cumming of Kinninmond, John Fullerton younger of Dud wick, Alexander 
Gordon of Carnousie, John Gordon of Avachie, Robert Gordon younger 
of Logie, James Gordon of Glastyrum, David Hunter of Burnside, John 
Halden of Lanrick, Andrew Hay younger of Rannes, Alexander Irvine of 
Drum, James Moir of Stoneywood, Thomas Ogilvie of East Mill, Thomas 
Ogilvie of Coul, James Stirling of Craigbarnet, John Turner younger ef Tur- 
nerhall, and Andrew Wauchope of Niddry. The act also excepted those who 
had formerly been specified in what was called the Act of Attainder. That 
act, which had been passed in the month of May 1746, after reciting that on 
or before April 18, certain persons named had traitorously levied war against 
the king, and were now fled from justice, enacted that the said persons 



410 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

act was passed (June 1747), a considerable number of per- 
sons, including* those who had been apprehended for their 
concern in the Prince's escape, were liberated. 

An act was passed for enforcing those already in exist- 
ence for disarming* the Highlanders. It was now ordained 
that if any man residing within the Highland line should 
fail to deliver up his arms before the 1st of August 1747, or 
if any man should attempt to conceal arms either in his 
house or in the fields, he was to be for the first offence fined 
in fifteen pounds, and imprisoned without bail till payment. 
If payment was not made within one month, he was to be 
transported to America as a common soldier, if able to 
serve ; if not able to serve, he was to be imprisoned for six 
months, and then only liberated on finding security for his 
good behaviour during the next ten years. If the offender 
was a woman, she was to be fined in the same sum, im- 
prisoned till payment, and afterwards confined for six 
months. A second offence against this law was to be visited 

should be held guilty of high treason and stand attainted, if they did not 
v surrender themselves to justice before the 12th of July. The persons named 
in this act were — Alexander, Earl of Kellie ; William, Viscount of Strath- 
allan ; Alexander, Lord Pitsligo ; David Wemyss, Esq., commonly called 
Lord Elcho, eldest son and heir-apparent of James, Earl of Wemyss ; James 
Drummond, Esq., eldest son and heir-apparent of William, Viscount of 
Strathallan; Simon Fraser, Esq., eldest son and heir-apparent of Simon 
Lord Lovat ; George Murray, Esq., commonly called Lord George Murray, 
brother to James, Duke of Athol ; Lewis Gordon, Esq., commonly called 
Lord Lewis Gordon, brother to Cosmo George, Duke of Gordon ; James Drum- 
mond, taking upon himself the title of Duke of Perth ; James Graham, late 
of Duntroon, taking on himself the title of Viscount of Dundee ; John Nairn, 
taking upon himself the title or style of Lord Nairn ; David Ogilvie, taking 
upon himself the title of Lord Ogilvie ; John Drummond, taking upon him- 
self the style or title of Lord John Drummond, brother to James Drummond, 
taking on himself the title of Duke of Perth ; Robert Mercer, Esq., otherwise 
Nairn of Aldie ; Sir William Gordon of Park ; John Murray of Broughton, 
Esq. ; John Gordon the elder of Glenbucket ; Donald Cameron the younger 
of Locheil ; Dr Archibald Cameron, brother to Donald Cameron the 
younger of Locheil ; Ludovick Cameron of Tor Castle ; Alexander Cameron 
of Dungallon ; Donald Macdonald of Clanranald, junior, son to Ronald 
Macdonald of Clanranald; Donald Macdonald of Lochgarry; Alexander 
Macdonald of Keppoch ; Archibald Macdonald, son of Colonel Macdonald of 
Barrisdale ; Alexander Macdonald of Glencoe ; Evan Macpherson of Clunie ; 
Lauchlan Maclauchlan of Castle Lauchlan ; John Mackinnon of Mackinnon ; 
Charles Stewart of Ardsheil ; George Lockhart, eldest son and heir-apparent 
of George Lockhart of Carnwath ; Lawrence Oliphant the elder of Gask ; 
Lawrence Oliphant the younger of Gask ; James Graham the younger of 
Airth ; John Stuart, commonly called John Roy Stuart ; Francis Far- 
quharson of Monalterye ; Alexander Macgilivrae of Drumaglash ; Lauchlan 
Mackintosh, merchant at Inverness; Malcolm Ross, son of Alexander Ross 
of Pitcalny ; Alexander Macleod, son to Mr John Macleod, advocate ; John 
Hay, portioner of Restalrig, writer to the signet ; Andrew Lumsdale, other- 
wise Lumsdain, son to William Lumsdale, otherwise Lumsdain, wrjjtsiL in 
Edinburgh ; and William Fidler, clerk in the auditor's office in the Ex- 
chequer of Scotland. 



MEASURES FOR PREVENTION, &C. 411 

with no less a punishment than transportation for seven 
years. 

Not only were the Highlanders deprived of their arms, 
but their very dress was proscribed, and by still severer 
penalties. The same act ordained that, after the 1st of 
August 1747, if any person, whether man or boy, within 
the same tract of country, were found wearing the clothes 
commonly called * the Highland clothes;' that is, the plaid, 
philabeg, trews, shoulder-belts, or any part whatsoever of 
the Highland garb, or if any person were found to wear 
a dress composed of tartan or party-coloured cloth, he 
should be imprisoned six months without bail for the first 
offence, and on its repetition be transported for seven 
years. 

It was thus hoped that not only would the Highlanders 
be incapable of again levying war against the state, but 
that, their distinction as a nation being destroyed, they 
would with all haste become obedient servants to govern- 
ment, like the rest of the community. As might have been 
expected, the result was very different. The clans were, it 
is true, effectually prevented from ever again going to the 
field against the House of Hanover, but they were not 
induced to regard that family or their government with 
any additional degree of favour. On the contrary, their 
previous disaffection was exasperated by these harsh mea- 
sures into absolute hatred. < Even the loyal clans/ says 
Dr Johnson, t murmured with an appearance of justice, 
that after having defended the king, they were forbidden 
for the future to defend themselves, and that the sword 
should be forfeited which had been legally employed.' 
But if the loss of their arms occasioned discontent, the 
change of their dress produced feelings still less favourable 
to the existing government. Had the whole race been deci- 
mated, as their historian General Stewart remarks, more 
violent grief, indignation, and shame could not have been 
excited among them than by this encroachment upon their 
dearest national prejudices. It may be said, in conclusion, 
that if the Highlanders have eventually become good ser- 
vants to the state, and undistinguishable in dress and 
demeanour from the rest of the population, no part of the 
blessing is to be ascribed to this enactment. 

The next act of the legislature was the celebrated one for 
abolishing heritable jurisdictions in Scotland. It was sup- 
posed that, by putting an end to the power which all land- 
proprietors had hitherto possessed of judging in civil and 
criminal cases among their dependents, the spirit of clan- 



412 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

ship would receive a mortal blow. Accordingly, it was 
resolved to buy up all these petty jurisdictions "from the 
proprietors, and to vest them in sheriffs, who should 
be appointed by the king*. It was also resolved that 
the hereditary justiciarship of Scotland, vested in the 
family of Argyle, should be purchased, and transferred 
to the High Court and Circuit Courts of Justiciary, and 
that all constabularies should be abolished, except the 
office of high constable. The whole sum granted by par- 
liament in exchange for the heritable jurisdictions was 
£152,000 — one of the cheapest purchases of patronage and 
power ever made. A companion act abolished the right of 
•ward-holding, by which landlords commanded the military 
services of their tenants. By these means the last conspi- 
cuous features of the feudal system were brought to an end 
in Scotland. Another act bore reference to the religious 
body styled the Scottish Episcopalians. The Episcopal 
church had ceased to be the established religion of the 
country, when its supporters, the Stuarts, ceased to reign 
over Britain. Previously to that period, it had been un- 
popular among the lower orders of people — originally, on 
account of a prejudice which they had against formalities, 
and latterly, on account of the injudicious persecutions 
which this church was the occasion of bringing upon the 
Presbyterians. Want of popular favour joined at the Revo- 
lution with another circumstance to procure its downfall. 
King William, before leaving Holland, had promised, in a 
declaration, to maintain it in all its privileges ; and when 
he had settled himself at London, he was prepared to keep 
his promise. On proceeding, however, to sound the bishops 
as to their affection to his government, he found them ob- 
stinate in their adherence to the former monarch, alleging 
that, as they had already sworn to be faithful to James and 
his heirs — for such was then the tenor of the oath of alle- 
giance — they could not in conscience transfer their fealty 
to him. William then saw fit to establish the Presbyterian 
church, the members of which, he understood, had already 
testified their abhorrence of the late government by dese- 
crating the fanes of Episcopacy, and rabbling out its clergy. 
From this time the Episcopal form of worship was marked 
as the religion of the Jacobites, and subjected to a variety 
of restrictions and persecutions, not more at the hands of 
the reformed government, than at those of the Presbyterian 
clergy and common people. In the reign of Queen Anne, 
when the Earl of Strathmore endeavoured to obtain an act 
of parliament i for the toleration of all Protestants in the 



MEASURES FOR PREVENTION, &C. 413 

exercise of religious worship/ a strong representation was 
offered against it by the General Assembly, concluding in 
these words — ' that they were persuaded that to enact a 
toleration for those in the Episcopal way — which God in his 
infinite mercy avert! — would be to establish iniquity by a 
law, and would bring upon the promoters thereof, and their 
families, the dreadful guilt of all those sins and pernicious 
effects that might ensue thereupon. 71 The Episcopal forms 
continued, nevertheless, to be adhered to by the greater part 
of the wealth, and rank, and no mean portion of the intel- 
ligence of the country, down to the year 1745, when, as 
already mentioned, its chapels sent forth not a few enthu- 
siasts to join the standard of Prince Charles, and it of course 
attracted the determined hostility of the existing govern- 
ment. Duke William, in his march to the north, finding it 
identified beyond all doubt with the disaffection of the dis- 
trict of Angus, had thought proper to visit it with the 
terrors of military law ; and the battle of Culloden had only 
been gained one week, when he succeeded in closing up 
every place of worship throughout the country in which a 
nonjuring clergyman officiated. On this occasion the Bibles, 
prayer-books, and other furniture of many of the chapels 
were taken out by the soldiers and openly burnt, and even 
the buildings were in some instances destroyed. It was 
now resolved to subject the Episcopalian body to a system 
of persecution which might have the colour of law. An act 
was accordingly passed, less than three months after the 
conclusion of the war, by which it was ordained that any 
Episcopal clergyman officiating after the 1st of September 
1746, without having taken the oaths of allegiance, abju- 
ration, and assurance, or without praying once, during the 
performance of worship, for the king, his heirs and suc- 
cessors, and for all the royal family, should, for the first 
offence, suffer six months 7 imprisonment; for the second 
(upon conviction before the High Court of Justiciary), be 
transported to the American plantations for life, and, in 
case of returning from banishment, be subjected to perpetual 
imprisonment. It was also ordained that no proprietor of 
a closed Episcopal meeting-house should regain possession 
of it till he gave security for £100 that he would not again 
permit it to be occupied by a nonjuring clergyman. In 
order to prevent these unfortunate ministers from officiating 
even in private, it was also enacted that every house in 
which five or more persons met to hear them perform 

1 Belsham's History of England, i. 293. 



414 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

service, should be considered a meeting-house within the 
meaning* of the act. With a purpose still more malevolent 
— that of entirely destroying" the apostolical ordination 
which the clergy of the Scottish Episcopal church had con- 
tinued to transmit from one to another since the Revolution 
— it was decreed that no letters of orders should be regis- 
tered after the 1st of September, except such as had been 
given by the church of England or the church of Ireland. 

Cruel as this persecution was, it might not eventually 
have injured the church so much, if it had not also extended 
to the laity. The act declared that if, after the 1st of Sep- 
tember 1746, any person should resort to an illegal Epis- 
copal meeting-house, and not give notice within five days 
of such illegal meeting to some proper magistrate, he should 
be subjected to fine or imprisonment. It declared further 
that no peer of Scotland should be capable of being elected 
one of the sixteen peers of parliament, or of voting at such 
election; and that no person should be capable of being 
elected a member of parliament for any shire or burgh who 
should, within the compass of any future year, be twice 
present at divine service in an Episcopal meeting in Scot- 
land not held according to law. 

In this state of things, 1 some of the clergy, who, though 
steady and zealous Episcopalians, had always professed 
themselves not Jacobites, feeling it their duty to render 
their chapels legal meeting-houses, repaired to the proper 
magistrates, took the oaths to government required by the 
act, and got their letters of orders registered before the 1st 
of September. But this compliance availed them nothing. 
In May 1748, the act of 1746 was amended, and an enact- 
ment made that no letters of orders not granted by some 
bishop of the church of England or of Ireland should be 
sufficient to qualify any Scottish Episcopal pastor, whether 
the same had been registered before or since the 1st of 
September 1746 ; and that every such registration, whether 
made before or since, should now be null and void. This 
act was directed against the very religion of the Scottish 
Episcopalians, for it precluded them from the privileges of 
political repentance. As such it was felt by the English 
bishops, not one of whom ventured to support the bill, while 
some spoke strenuously against it, as a flagrant attack on 
the leading principles of Christian liberty. 

That these statutes were not mere matters of form, but 
that the penalties were rigorously put in execution, could 

1 Keith's Catalogue, with Appendix, by the Rev. Dr Russell, p. 511. 



MEASURES FOR PREVENTION, &C. 415 

be proved by numerous instances. One clergyman, not 
more distinguished by his well-known poetical genius than 
by his piety and private worth, the Rev. John Skinner of 
Longmay in Aberdeenshire, was imprisoned, in terms of the 
second act, for six months, in the public jail of the county 
town, although he had previously taken all the loyal oaths, 
and for two years prayed for the king by name. Other 
clergymen, who did not pray for the king by name, suffered 
similar imprisonments ; and a few were obliged to take 
refuge in England and elsewhere from the penalties with 
which they were threatened. 

The general result of the two statutes was simply to 
annihilate the conscientious portion of the church. It 
was now impossible for a lay member of it to con- 
tinue in the faith of his forefathers and that of his own 
youth, without incurring* disqualifications of the most 
grievous sort. Altogether, the persecutions to which the 
church was subjected were of a nature even more severe 
than those with which the Presbyterians were visited 
in the reign of Charles II. In what are considered the 
hottest periods of that persecution, the clergymen were 
permitted to retain parish churches, upon the simple con- 
dition of yielding verbal obedience to the government, and 
not one individual suffered punishment who was not also a 
rebel against the state. But in this persecution of a later 
and milder time, the whole clergy were deprived of even 
the privileges of dissenters, and exposed to the severest 
punishment, except death, for simply withholding their al- 
legiance. The Presbyterians could at any time have saved 
themselves by pronouncing the Scriptural phrase, ' God 
save the king ; ' but the Episcopalians could not escape, 
without actually perjuring themselves — without swearing 
(by the oath of abjuration) that they believed, what no 
unprejudiced man could believe, that the Pretender was a 
supposititious child. 

If the persecution of the Episcopalians surpassed that of 
the Presbyterians in severity, it is not less true that the 
members of the former church displayed fully as much con- 
stancy under their afflictions. Instead of fomenting civil 
rebellion, or declaiming in their private assemblies against 
the government which treated them with so much cruelty, 
they submitted with meekness to a fate which they could 
not controvert. Instead of flying* to the fields and publish- 
ing their grievances at conventicles, they sought to admi- 
nister those ordinances to private families which they were 
prevented from dispensing to a congregation. Individual 



416 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

clergymen have thus been known to perform worship no 
less than sixteen times in one day. 1 

However much the historian of this period may he dis- 
posed to condemn the cruelty displayed in these statutes, 
he must certainly acknowledge that they were attended 
eventually with the desired effect of disabling* the malcon- 
tent part of the community. By the first, the Highlanders 
were deprived of the means of carrying" on an active war- 
fare, and put in a fair way of becoming* amalgamated with 
the rest of the community. By the second, the whole 
people of Scotland were emancipated from their obligations 
to the aristocracy, and enabled to prosecute commercial and 
agricultural enterprise with increased effect. By the third, 
a religious community which had formerly cherished un- 
failing affection for the House of Stuart was completely 
broken up, and in a manner compelled to transfer their 
allegiance to the existing government. 

The spirit of Jacobitism, during its period of decay, was 

1 The shifts to which the Jacobite Episcopalians were put, in order to per- 
form the ceremonies of religion without incurring legal vengeance, were quite 
as distressing as those of the nonconformists of King Charles's time. In the 
Episcopal Register of Muthill in Perthshire there is the following entry, 
under date of March 20, 1750, in the handwriting of the Rev. William Erskine, 
Episcopal minister there (father of the late William Erskine, Esq. advocate, 
better known by his senatorial title of Lord Kinedder) :— 

' N.B. — With such excessive severity were the penal laws executed at this 
time, that Andrew Moir having neglected to keep his appointment with me 
at my own house this morning, and following me to Lord Rollo's house of 
Duncrub, we could not take the child into a house, but I was obliged to go 
under the cover of trees in one of Lord Rollo's parks, to prevent our being 
discovered, and baptise the child there — namely, Helen, lawful daughter of 
Andrew Moir and Anne Grey, in Crofthead of Fairnton, born the 18th, and 
was baptised the 20th of March 1750.' 

The following anecdote may be related as illustrative of the magnanimity 
which these unfortunate clergymen occasionally displayed under their afflict- 
ing circumstances. It refers to an old lady who died lately (1827) in Edin- 
burgh, and who related it to my informant. This person was born at Dundee, 
and had the fortune to be the granddaughter, paternally, of a minister of the 
Established church, while her grandfather by the mother's side was a bishop 
of the Episcopal communion. Her mother wished ardently that she should 
be baptised by her father the bishop, while her husband's father, on the other 
hand, was determined to perform that office himself. Such was the state of 
the times, that the bishop could not act in the way proposed without great 
danger, nor was he sure that the paternal grandfather of the child might not 
be so much exasperated as to inform upon him. Firmly edified, however, 
in the certainty that his conduct was worthy in the eyes of God, whatever 
might be its merits in those of men, he resolved to brave every contingency. 
So firmly, indeed, was he determined to perform his duty, that on reaching 
his daughter's room, he made this remarkable declaration — ' If there were a 
gibbet,' he said, 'in one corner of the room, and the child in the other 
corner, and if I were informed that the said gibbet was to be the certain and 
immediate penalty of my conduct, still would I baptise the child!* He 
had just concluded the ceremony when the paternal grandfather arrived to 
perform the rite in his peculiar way, but as there were no hostile witnesses 
to prove what had been done, it was impossible to punish the celebrator. 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 417 

something very different from what it had been in the year 
1745. It had till that period been the spirit of young 
as well as old people, and possessed sufficient strength to 
excite its votaries into active warfare. But as the Stuarts 
then ceased to acquire fresh adherents, and their claims 
became daily more and more obsolete, it was now left 
entirely to the generation which had witnessed its glories ; 
in other words, became dependent upon the existence of a 
few old enthusiasts, more g*enerally of the female than the 
male sex. After this period, indeed, Jacobitism became 
identified with the weakness of old age, and ceased to have 
the power of moving any heart, except one which mig*ht 
have throbbed with love for Prince Charles, or heaved to 
the stern music of Gladsmuir and Culloden. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 



' Last scene of all, 



That ends this strange eventful history.' 

Prince Charles was left at the end of 1748 in Avignon, 
immediately after having been liberated from the castle of 
Yincennes. He had not been two months in that city, when 
suddenly he disappeared, and for a long time little was 
known of his motions, It is now ascertained that he 
privately returned into France, attended only by a Colonel 
Goring, and that in May he visited Paris. About this time 
he is supposed to have contemplated a match with a prin- 
cess of the house of Hesse Darmstadt ; but no serious nego- 
tiation seems ever to have been entered upon. For more 
than a year he was lost sight of by his friends, and even by 
his father and brother. Morbid feeling, acting upon a 
character naturally secretive, seems to have been the cause 
of this strange conduct. During this time his father occa- 
sionally addressed letters to him, complaining of his capri- 
cious behaviour, but in terms of affecting mildness. He 
first reappears when, according- to Dr King, he visited 
London. i September . . , 1750/ says that gentleman, 1 

1 Political and Literary Anecdotes of his own Times, by Dr William King, 
Principal of St Mary's Hall, Oxon. Second edition, 1819. Dr King had been 
a keen Jacobite, and was one of the ablest literary men of the party in 1745. 
VOL. V. 2 A 



418 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

1 1 received a note from my Lady Primrose, who desired 
to see me immediately. As soon as I waited on her, she 

led me into her dressing-room, and presented me to .* 

If I was surprised to find him there, I was still more 
astonished when he acquainted me with the motives which 
had induced him to hazard a journey to England at this 
juncture. The impatience of his friends who were in exile 
had formed a scheme which was impracticable ; but although 
it had been as feasible as they had represented it to him, yet 
no preparation had been made, nor was anything ready to 
carry it into execution. He was soon convinced that he 
had been deceived, and therefore, after a stay in London of 
five days only, he returned to the place from whence he 
came.' The writer adds in a note, * He came one evening 
to my lodgings and drank tea with me : my servant, 
after he was gone, said to me " that he thought my new 
visitor very like Prince Charles." " Why," said I, " have 
you ever seen Prince Charles?" "No, sir," replied the 
fellow; " but this gentleman, whoever he may be, exactly 
resembles the busts of him which are sold in Red Lion 
Street, and are said to be the busts of Prince Charles." 
The truth is, these busts were taken in plaster of Paris 
from his face.' It would appear that something of im- 
portance was contemplated on this occasion by the Prince, 
as he obtained, with a view to it, a renewal of his powers 
from his father. 

Obscurity again settles upon him for a period. Where he 
travelled, or where he stayed, what name and character he 
assumed, and by whom he was attended, were unknown to 
his friends in Britain, and even to those abroad who might 
have been expected to be most in his confidence. One 
gentleman who knew him, found him, in April 1752, for a 
few days at Campvere in the island of Middleburg. He 
appears, from published papers, to have trafficked a little 
with the Swedish court, with a view to aid towards a new 
enterprise ; and I have been informed that at Stockholm 
there are traces of his having once resided there, particu- 
larly the insignia he wore in some high masonic character, 
which are still preserved in one of the lodges established in 
that city. A letter, of date 12th November 1753, signed 

He lived to see the prudence of reconciling himself to the reigning family, 
and being then of course much reviled by his former party, seems to have 
contracted a furious antipathy to the Prince and all who still adhered to him. 
I have no doubt that much of what he has written respecting Charles is 
untrue, and that the rest is grossly exaggerated. The evidence of a party 
deserter respecting his late friends should obviously be received with caution. 
1 The Prince. 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 419 

with his incognito name John Douglas, but without place, 1 
informs Colonel Goring that he had written to Avignon 
to pay off all his Papist servants, and his mistress, who 
was also a Papist, and had behaved insolently, but that 
he still retained two gentlemen and all the Protestant 
servants. Another letter adds the reason for dismiss- 
ing his servants, 6 as I am not able to maintain them any 
more,' and further expresses his hope that if they go 
to Rome his father will maintain them. The preference 
of the Protestant to the Catholic servants would seem to 
indicate attachment for the former religion, which he is 
said to have about this time embraced. In a letter to his 
father's secretary, Edgar, 24th March, 1754, 2 we have some 
revelations showing a decidedly morbid state of mind. ' I 

1 Browne's Appendix. 

2 This Mr Edgar acted as private secretary to the old chevalier for nearly 
fifty years. He was a fine specimen of the high-minded, wami-hearted, old 
Scottish gentleman — a character at no time difficult to find in the Jacohite 
party, whatever may be thought of the judgment shown by it in its general 
aims and purposes. To a great-grandniece of Mr Edgar I am indebted for 
the following particulars : — 

* Some considerable time after the '15, the British government had reason 
to believe that another attempt was to be made for the exiled family. Sir 
Robert Walpole directed his spies to learn who was most in King James's 
confidence, and what were the character and circumstances of the indivi- 
dual. He was told that the king's private secretary was the younger son of 
a Scotch laird of small fortune ; that he was of a generous, hospitable turn, 
fond of entertaining his countrymen when in Rome ; and that he had but a 
small salary. This was just what Sir Robert wanted, and he wrote to Edgar, 
offering a handsome sum if he would betray the intentions of his master. 
Edgar put the letter into the fire, and returned no answer. Several other 
epistles, bearing advancing offers, met the same fate. Sir Robert, thinking he 
had not yet come up to the secretary's price, then wrote (and this time with- 
out making any conditions) that he had placed ten thousand pounds in the 
Bank of Venice in the name of Mr Edgar. The secretary then consulted his 
master, and after a brief interval, returned for answer that he had received 
Sir Robert's letter. He thanked him for the ten thousand pounds, which he 
had lost no time in drawing from the bank, and had just laid at the feet of 
his royal master, who had the best title to gold that came, as this had done, 
from England. 

* My mother, when in her teens, during her first visit to Edinburgh, heard 
this story told at a dinner-party in the house of Dr Webster, amongst a com- 
pany consisting chiefly of Jacobites, by Mr Andrew Lumisden, who had \ 
succeeded her granduncle as secretary during the few years in which King 
James survived his faithful servant. She was delighted with the anecdote, 
but had doubts of its truth, as she had never heard her father mention it. 

On retiring from the party, she wrote to her father begging to know if it was 
true, and if so, why he had never told her of it. The reply was — it was per- 
fectly true, but that she need not wonder that he had not boasted of his uncle 
being an honest man. 

* My mother has several private letters from her granduncle to his nephew 
(her father), written after the return of the latter from his ten years' exile, 
consequent on his joining the Prince in '45. They exhibit the amiable cha- 
racter of the dear old man in the most engaging light. His warm affection for 
his friends, his native land, and the home of his childhood, continued to the 
last, though he lived and died far away from all.' 



420 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

am grieved to think that our master [his father] should 
think that my silence was either neglect or want of duty ; 
but in reality my situation is such, that I have nothing to 
say but imprecations against the fatality of being born in 
such a detestable age. There are only two things that, with 
all due respect that I have, and shall always have, for my 
master, who is so great a lover of justice that he will never 
exact from me, and that I can never be capable to do. 
These are such things as may be either against my interest 
or honour. My interest does not imply any human views, 
but only such steps as can conduct to the prosperity and 
happiness of our country. The unworthy behaviour of 
certain ministers of 10th December 1748, has put it out of 
my power to settle anywhere without honour or interest 
being at stake ; and were it even possible for me to find 
a place of abode, I think our family have had sufferings 
enough, that will always hinder me to marry as long as in 
misfortune, for that would only conduce to increase misery, 
or subject any of the family that would have the spirit of 
their father to be tied neck and heel rather than yield to 
a vile ministry.' Amongst other distresses, he seems about 
this time to have been troubled by creditors. In September 
1754, he writes to Cluny Macpherson, who had remained 
till now in hiding in Scotland, requiring him to come over 
with all the money which had been left under his care in 
Scotland, ' for I happen to be at present in great straits. 5 
He made anxious application to the Earl Marischal for his 
services ; but his lordship was too little disposed to approve 
of his conduct to commit himself personally even as an 
adviser. 

In 1755, a gentleman whose name is given as D s 

(perhaps Dawkins) communicated to some of the Jacobite 
party in Britain a very unfavourable account of the Prince's 
conduct, representing him as one abandoned to a debauched 
life, insomuch as to bring his health, and even his life, into 
danger — that in his excesses he had no guard on his con- 
duct or expressions, and was in some degree void of reason 
— that he was always too precipitate in taking his resolu- 
tions, and was then obstinate and deaf to the most solid 
advice — that he put no value on, and was ungrateful for, 
the very best services, and was unforgiving and revengeful 
for the very smallest offence — in short, that he united in 
his single person all the vices and faults that had ever been 
in his family, without one of their virtues. In consequence 
of this representation, certain individuals, whose names 
have not become known, commissioned a gentleman to 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 421 

cany over from them a memorial, reciting" all which had 
been said, and pointing out the great injury it was calcu- 
lated to give to his prospects in Britain ; intreating 1 him at 
the same time to live with circumspection and decency, 
and proposing to send to him some person entirely trusted 
by them who might act as his counsellor. It seems likely 
that a threat to break with him, in the event of his not 
listening* to their remonstrance, was carried by the mes- 
senger. The Prince, only enraged by the charges broug'ht 
against him, replied in scornful terms. l Gentlemen/ he 
says, ' I some time ago received a very surprising message, 
delivered in a still more surprising manner. Reason may, 
and I hope always shall, prevail ; but my heart deceives me 
if threats or promises ever can. I had always determined 
to await events in silence or patience, and believed the 
advances which to your knowledge I have already made, 
were as great as could be reasonably expected on my part. 
Yet the influence of well-wishers, of whose sincerity I am 
satisfied, has made me put pen to paper in vindication of 
my character, which I understand by them some unworthy 
people have had the insolence to attack, very possibly to 
serve some mean purpose of their own. Conscious of my 
conduct, I despise their low malice ; and I consider it to be 
below my dignity to treat them in the terms they merit.' 1 
Immediately after (September 16), we find him writing- in 
melancholy terms to Mr Edgar, c My sentiments, my 
honour, my real interest, joined with the unworthy beha- 
viour of some people, has reduced me these several years 
past to great straits, but now more than ever, which obliges 
me with concern to dismiss the most part of my family. 
I send you here a list of them, hoping that, when you lay 
it before the king, he will, out of his good heart, have com- 
passion on such poor distressed subjects.' For some time 
after we altogether lose sight of this unhappy Prince, but 
it is believed that he chiefly resided in great privacy at 
Avignon. How affecting a scrap of his writing about 1760, 
which has been preserved — 'De vivre et pas vivre est 
beaucoup plus que de mourir ! ' 2 

The papers of Bishop Forbes contain a number of parti- 
culars respecting the latter life of the Prince. It appears 

1 The remonstrance, and the Prince's answer, are given in Browne's Appen- 
dix. Dr King seems to allude to this remonstrance when he states that a 
Colonel Macnamara went to the Prince, as a commissioner from the British 
Jacohites, to request him to dismiss his mistress, Miss Walkingshaw; which 
the Prince, he says, refused to do. There is no word of a mistress in the 
documents above quoted. 

2 * To live and not to live is much worse than to die.' 



422 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

very decisively from these papers that Charles embraced 
the religion of the church of England. The bishop pre- 
serves a copy of a letter dictated by him to his friends in 
Britain, under date August 12, 1762, and to the following 
effect : — c Assure my friends in Britain that I am in perfect 
health ; that I hope it will come like a thunderbolt ; and 
that I shall not neglect to recompense every worthy subject 
as soon as it shall be in my power. They may be assured 
I shall live and die in the religion of the church of England, 
which I have embraced ; and that no kind thing can be said, 
but what I wish to all my dear friends, for whose good I 
wish more to be amongst them, than for any advantage it 
would be to myself, as I have no great ambition except for 
their welfare.' In June 1763, the first trace appears, in the 
bishop's memoranda, of a desire on the part of the British 
Jacobites that the Prince should marry ; and it is amusing 
to observe with what piety they hope that such an event 
maybe brought about, and that it maybe productive of 
future pretenders to the throne. Mrs Oliphant of Gask, in 
Perthshire, or, as she is here called, Lady Gask, appears as 
the moving person in the affair — and the Prince is shadowed 
forth as a female cousin of that gentlewoman under the 
designation of Cousin Peggy. A gentleman in London, 
writing to Forbes, 8th August 1763, mentions that Lady 
Gask had arrived amongst her friends — the chevalier's court 
in Italy — and found them all well ; that Cousin Peggy 
thanked the bishop for a pot of marmalade he had sent her ; 
and that she only waited for a convenient opportunity to 
visit her friends in Britain. Another letter, unsubscribed, 
of date October 27, 1763, mentions that Cousin Peggy had 
enjoyed a hearty laugh on being informed recently that c a 
certain friend sacredly preserved the favourite brogues, and 
made friends drink out of them' — alluding evidently to the 
Highland shoes worn by the Prince while travelling through 
Skye in a female dress, and which had been preserved by Mac- 
donald of Kingsburgh, his guide and host on that occasion. 
'The 1st of January 1766' — so runs a paragraph entered 
by the bishop — i (about a quarter after nine o'clock) put a 
period to the troubles and disappointments of good old Mr 
James Misfortunate' — meaning the old chevalier, who, 
we learn, had long been confined to bed with general weak- 
ness. Charles, who now considered himself king of Eng- 
land, had the mortification, as is well known, to find his 
pretensions acknowledged by no European court, not even 
hy the pope, for the sake of whose faith his grandfather had 
forfeited his throne. About a year before the death of the 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 423 

old chevalier, Charles had renewed his correspondence with 
his brother, who acted towards him in the most forgiving" 
and generous manner, and made the most strenuous exer- 
tions to prepare the way for the pope acknowledging his 
royal character, after their father should have departed this 
life. When James died, Charles was on his way to Rome, 
and was met on the road, two posts beyond Florence, by Mr 
Andrew Lumisden, with accounts of the sad event, and of 
his accession to the nominal dignity of king. Arriving in 
Rome, he was received by the immediate attendants of his 
father as king, but the pope positively refused to acknow- 
ledge his title. l In these circumstances, no one being able 
to visit him, he was left quite alone : Mr Lumisden com- 
pared him and his immediate attendants, isolated in Roman 
society, to the crew of a vessel at sea. Even the heads of 
the English, Scotch, and Irish colleges were sent from 
Rome in disgrace for receiving him as king within their 
own walls. To these distresses was added that of limited 
income, for the revenues which his father had derived from 
the courts of France and Spain were not continued to him. 
He had not more than 15,000 crowns per annum, including 
an allowance of 10,000 from the pope, which his brother 
had made over to him. He now withdrew to his late 
father's seat at Albano, where he lived for some years under 
the modest title of Count of Albany, but still without aban- 
doning his pretensions. In the ' Pleasures of Hope,' Mr 
Campbell has omitted one remarkable exemplification of 
that passion — namely, its tenacity and intensity in the 
breasts of an expiring party. We find Bishop Forbes in 
the ensuing September congratulating- himself on the infor- 
mation communicated by a * Mr O./ probably Oliphant, that 
1 some great and principal persons were beginning to turn 
their views to my Favourite Lady, as the only one to extri- 
cate them out of their difficulties, and set to rights their 
disjointed affairs' — meaning, probably, the troubles occa- 
sioned by the reception of the stamp act in America. 

1 In a letter from John Farquharson of Ardlerg, a refugee Jacobite residing 
at Dunkirk, to Bishop Forbes, of date May 20, 1767, occurs the following 
passage :— ' The gentleman [that is, the Prince] is positive that he is the 
peculiar care of Heaven, as passing through so many dangers, and that he is 
designed for some great end. He takes all his misfortunes (if you believe those 
about him) like the true Christian hero. His answer to the pope, when he 
sent him word that he would not allow him to take on any titles there, was 
somewhat good. He told the nuncio that the loss of Culloden gave him more 
real concern than any loss he could suffer by any orders from his holiness, 
and that whatever titles he would take, neither pope nor conclave could nor 
had any right to take from him. This I had from a gentleman who was 
present.'— Lyon in Mourning, x. 1901. 



424 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Throughout this and the ensuing 1 year, great anxiety is 
expressed by the bishop and his correspondents respecting* 
the equivocal conduct of the chevalier in continuing* Roman 
Catholic clergymen in his household, and attending* Roman 
Catholic places of worship, though they are from time to 
time requested, by persons in his confidence, not to judge 
too hastily from appearances. Much anxiety is expressed 
that he should leave Italy, and thoughts seem to have been 
entertained of his visiting his friends in Scotland — of course 
incognito. Early, however, in 1769, the worthy beings who 
looked to him as their legitimate sovereign, and made a 
religion of their attachment to him, are shocked still more 
grievously by hearing of his habit of tippling, and that in 
a drunken fit he had dismissed all his Scottish attendants, 
and supplied their places with Italians. Much difficulty 
is experienced by Bishop Forbes in obtaining correct infor- 
mation on this subject ; but at length he receives full par- 
ticulars from two individuals who had been at the chevalier's 
court, and whom he distinguishes only by the appellation of 
the Fellow-Travellers. At a meeting on the 8th of this 
month with Bishop Gordon, 1 at Moffat, he communicates 
these particulars, most curiously glossed by party prepos- 
session, in the following terms : — 

6 That John Hay, 2 Andrew Lumisden, 3 and Captain Urqu- 
hart had been dismissed for a real act of disobedience. It 

was true, indeed, that the k had been in use, for some 

time past, to call frequently for t'other glass of wine at 
dinner and supper, not from any liking to liquor, but like 
one absent in mind, when he met with things that vexed 
him, as too often was the case. One day at dinner he had 
done so till he was somewhat intoxicated, and in that con- 
dition proposed going to an oratorio in the afternoon ; but 
they absolutely refused to attend him. Yea, he went into 
his coach, ana they would by no means go into it ; upon 
which he returned to his apartments and dismissed them. 

1 Minister of a London congregation of nonjurors. This gentleman had 
baptised the Prince's eldest child by Miss Walkingshaw. 

2 John Hay, who had been a writer to the signet in Edinburgh, and was 
designed ' portioner of Restalrig,' acted as vice-chamberlain or treasurer to 
the Prince during the latter part of the campaign of 1745-6. He is described, 
in a memoir by Sir Thomas Strange (MSS.), as brother to Lord Huntingdon, 
one of the judges of the Court of Session. Charles, after the death of his 
father, knighted him. Subsequently to his dismissal, he returned to Britain 
on a writ of Noli Prosequi, and visited his Scotch friends, including Sir 
Thomas Miller of Glenlee, then Lord- Justice Clerk. 

3 Lumisden was brother-in-law to the celebrated engraver Sir Robert Strange, 
and published a respectable work on the antiquities of Rome. He soon after 
made his peace with the government, and returned to his native country. 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 425 

In a day or two he sent for them to return to their duty ; 
but they happening to consult with the Cardinal York, he 
advised them absolutely not to return ; which counsel they 
followed ; and he took care to have four Italians put into 
their places, as persons more fit for his purposes and designs. 
The cardinal would have been well enough pleased had 
John Stewart, a constant and faithful attendant, been like- 
wise dismissed ; but that could not take place, as both master 
and servant, an Athole-man, were not willing to part. 
Therefore there are still two Britons with him — Mr Wag- 
staffe, an Englishman, 1 and John Stewart, a Scotsman. 
He now enjoys more ease and quiet than formerly, and has 
never been seen concerned in the least with liquor since 
that event, which had been happily attended with one good 
effect, to make him think more seriously upon what had 
happened ; and no man could be of a more firm and deter- 
mined resolution than he was known to be. Not a blot, 
nor so much as a pimple, was in his face, though malici- 
ously given out by some as if it were all over blotted ; but 
he is jolly and plump, though not to excess, being still agile, 
and tit for undergoing toil. 7 With respect to his religion, 
the bishop stated that his informants had been empowered 
to give out that any demonstrations he might make in fa- 
vour of the Roman Catholic faith were owing to the difficulty 
of his situation, as, even between eleven and twelve years 
of age, he had made up his mind against the truth of its 
doctrines, and determined on the change that had subse- 
quently taken place in his professions. It is also stated 
that he only remained at Rome in the hope of obtaining a 
recognition of his titles, and a pension from the new pope. 
We also have the following note : — ' That Mrs Forbes had 
given the two Fellow-Travellers a piece of seed-cake, which 

they took entire to the k , making a present of it to 

him, and withal telling him from whom they had it. 
" Ay," said he, "a piece of seed-cake from Scotland, and 
from Edinburgh too ! " Then rising from his seat, and 
opening a drawer, " There," said he, " you see me deposit it, 
and no tooth shall go upon it but my own." 7 Charles had 
further sent a memorandum for a copy of the bishop's nar- 
rative of his escape, and a cookery book of English pastry 
puddings ; and we are afterwards informed that the former 
work, when sent, was translated into Italian, and published 
at Rome. 

Soon after, intelligence of a more cheerful nature visits 

1 The chevalier's Protestant chaplain. 



426 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

these zealous votaries of divine right. A friend recently 
at Rome informs Forbes that Charles ' is a great economist, 
and pays all accounts once a-month at farthest, and that he 
gets up in the morning about four o'clock, takes breakfast 
about seven, dines at twelve on the plainest dishes, drinks 
tea at four, sups betwixt seven and eight, and is in his bed- 
chamber by nine, or before it' — habits, it must be allowed, 
very different from those of most professed tipplers. ' I heard 
lately/ says another correspondent of the bishop in 1770, 
' that Cousin Peggy was well, much in company now with 
the great folks, and received all the honours from them she 
could desire.' It is also curious to observe what hopes were 
inspired into the breasts of the Jacobites by the Wilkes 
tumults and the commercial difficulties of this era. In 
November of the year just quoted, Bishop Gordon writes 
that ' Cousin Peggy is still lively and active, and ready for 
employment; and, now troubles seem to be rising in the 
world more and more, I think it not improbable but she 
may again find occasion for the exercise of her talents.' In 
April of the ensuing year, John Farquharson of Ardlerg 
writes that the king had been using his divine right in a 
medical way. ' He is now fairly turned physician, and has 
made this year several wonderful cures, particularly one of 
a princess, looked upon [as] incurable. This has been of 
service to him, adds greatly to his character, and has given 
him the name of the Miraculous Doctor.' 

In the beginning of 1772 the chevalier made a journey 
incog, to Paris, travelling a thousand miles in seven days, 
without being affected by it in his appearance. The move- 
ment may be surmised to have been connected with a ne- 
gotiation for his marriage to Louisa, Princess of Stolberg, 
which the French and Spanish monarchs had concocted. 
The nuptials, which took place in the ensuing April, seem 
to have kindled up great joy amongst the Scottish Jacobites. 
Louisa immediately becomes the subject of loyal toasts, some 
of them by no means over-delicate in the turn of their allu- 
sions. An engraving of her portrait is handed about. She 
is celebrated in stiff but thoroughly cordial verses ; and 
all is satisfaction and happy expectation. Charles and his 
wife were privately presented to Louis XVI. in the spring of 
1775. They did not on that occasion make any public ap- 
pearance in Paris, whence they went to Bayonne, on their way 
to visit the king of Spain. In the ensuing May, a letter from 
Florence appeared in the English newspapers, stating that 
he lived there in great poverty, barely able to keep a car- 
riage, on which he was not allowed to put any armorial 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 427 

bearings. He is described as extremely corpulent, owing* 
to a total disuse of exercise, and much pimpled in the face, 
in consequence of drinking*. 

In a work entitled c Letters from Italy, by a Lady/ pub- 
lished in 1776, the authoress [Mrs Miller] gives an account 
of two meeting's she had with Charles at Rome, probably 
in the preceding year. While she was passing the evening 
at the Duchess of Bracciano's, one of the gentlemen in 
waiting announced II Re [The King], the title by which he 
was known at Rome. She was anxious, from motives of 
prudence, to avoid speaking to him, but on entering, he made 
her a particular bow, sat down on the same sofa, and began 
a conversation with her and the duchess. 6 At last he ad- 
dressed me in particular, and asked me how many days 
since my arrival in Rome, how long I should stay, and 
several such questions. ... At my departure, I took leave 
of the Duchess of Bracciano (agreeable to the custom), and 
the chevalier, officiously civil, rose up and wished me a good- 
night. He is naturally above the middle size, but stoops 
excessively : he appears bloated and red in the face, his 
countenance heavy and sleepy, which is attributed to his 
having given into excess of drinking* ; but when a young- 
man, he must have been esteemed handsome. His com- 
plexion is of the fair tint, his eyes blue, his hair light-brown, 
and the contour of his face a long oval. He is by no means 
thin, has a noble presence and a graceful manner; his 
dress was scarlet, laced with a broad gold lace ; he wears 
his blue ribbon outside of his coat, from which depends a 
cameo (antique) as large as the palm of my hand ; and 
wears the same garter and motto as those of the order of 
St Georg;e in England : upon the whole, he has a melan- 
cholic mortified appearance. 7 

There can be no room to doubt that about this time the 
habits of the unfortunate Prince were undergoing a rapid 
change for the worse, and that he soon after beg*an to render 
his wife extremely unhappy. About the year 1778, the 
poet Alfieri, then under thirty years of age, and the most 
enthusiastic and passionate of mortals, became acquainted 
with this princess, whose character is universally allowed 
to have been as amiable as her person was beautiful. He 
first saw her in the great g'allery of Florence, and hearing* 
her say, in reference to a portrait of Charles XII. of Sweden, 
that she thought the dress becoming, he astonished the in- 
habitants of the city by two days after appearing in the 
streets in an exact copy of that extraordinary uniform. A 
sonnet which he afterwards composed upon her, under the 



428 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

title of Ritralto della ma Donna (Description of my Mis- 
tress), has been thus translated : — 

' Bright are the dark locks of her braided hair ; 

Grecian her brow ; its silken eyebrows brown ; 
Her eyes— oh lover, to describe forbear ! — 

Life can their glance impart, and death their frown ! 
Her mouth no rosebud, and no rose her cheek, 

May emulate in freshness, fragrance, hue : 
A voice so soft and sweet, to hear her speak 

Inspires delight and pleasures ever new : 
A smile to soothe all passions save despair ; 

A slight and graceful form ; a neck of snow ; 
A soft white hand, and polished arm as fair ; 

A foot whose traces Love delights to show. 
And with these outward charms, which all adore, 

A mind and heart more pure and perfect given ; 
For thee thy lover can desire no more, 

Adorned by every grace and gift of Heaven.' 

Unable at length to endure any longer the harshness of 
her husband, the princess employed the services of Alfieri 
in enabling her to escape from his influence. According to 
a plan arranged by the poet, Charles and his wife walked 
one morning to a neighbouring convent, for the ostensible 
purpose of inspecting the work of the nuns. The princess, 
moving smartly in advance, entered the convent, where it 
had been agreed that she was to receive protection. When 
Charles came up, he was refused admittance, and he never 
saw his wife again. The princess soon after removed to 
Rome, where she was received with brotherly kindness by 
Cardinal York, and finally she proceeded to Paris. All 
this was accomplished without her having in the least com- 
promised her reputation. She ultimately formed a secret 
alliance, as was supposed, with Alfieri, with whom she lived 
till his death in 1803. She afterwards resided at Florence, 
where she died in January 1824, aged seventy-two, having 
long enjoyed a pension of £2000 per annum from the British 
crown. 1 

Even when sunk in the absolute sottishness which is so apt 
to befall greatly disappointed men, there were not wanting 
in Charles Edward gleams of that natural spirit which led 
him to a hostile shore with seven men, and carried him into 
the midst of three armies, each his superior : the light of a 
better day still gleamed fitfully on the dishonoured head of 
the Last Stuart. When the late venerable primus of the 
Scottish episcopate (Walker) was at Rome in the early years 
of the present century, he received from the lips of Cardinal 

1 It is said that this lady, after the death of Alfieri, made a left-handed 
marriage with his friend Francis Xavier Fabre, a French historical painter, 
whom she appointed her universal executor. 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES, 429 

York the following 1 anecdote : — ' Mr Greathead, a personal 
friend of Mr Fox, succeeded, when at Rome in 1782 or 1783, 
in obtaining an interview with Charles Edward ; and being 
alone with him for some time, studiously led the conver- 
sation to his enterprise in Scotland, and to the occurrences 
which succeeded the failure of that attempt. The Prince 
manifested some reluctance to enter upon these topics, 
appearing* at the same time to undergo so much mental 
suffering-, that his guest regretted the freedom he had used in 
calling up the remembrance of his misfortunes. At length, 
however, the Prince seemed to shake off the load which 
oppressed him; his eye brightened, his face assumed un- 
wonted animation, and he entered upon the narrative of his 
Scottish campaigns with a distinct but somewhat vehement 
energy of manner — recounted his marches, his battles, his 
victories, his retreats, and his defeats — detailed his hair- 
breadth escapes in the Western Isles, the inviolable and 
devoted attachment of his Highland friends, and at length 
proceeded to allude to the dreadful penalties with which the 
chiefs among them had been visited. But here the tide of 
emotion rose too high to allow him to go on — his voice 
faltered, his eye became fixed, and he fell convulsed on the 
floor. The noise brought into the room his daughter, the 
Duchess of Albany, who happened to be in an adjoining 
apartment. "Sir," she exclaimed, "what is this! You 
have been speaking to my father about Scotland and the 
Highlanders! No one dares to mention these subjects in 
his presence." n 

It is also an affecting, and, I may surely add, redeeming 
circumstance in the life of this ill-fated Prince, that amongst 
the amusements of his last and lonely hours was that of 
playing on the bagpipe those airs which, in his brighter 
days, soothed him in the bivouac, or led him to victory. 2 
Domenico Corri the musician, in his life of himself, gives 
some interesting particulars of the Prince's latter years, 
After stating that some fortunate connexions had raised 
him to the honour of conducting the concert parties given 
at Rome by the English and native nobility, he adds — 
'This period was the pontificate of Ganganelli, who was 
the friend of Prince Charles the Pretender, brother of 
Cardinal York. That Prince frequently gave entertain- 

1 The above anecdote was published a few years ago in the Episcopal 
Magazine, a work conducted by Bishop Russell. 

2 A beautiful set of pipes, which belonged to him, having the joints bound 
with silver, was purchased from his servant early in this century by Mr 
Skene of Rubislaw, who still (1846) possesses them. 



430 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

ments and concerts to the nobility, the conducting- of 
which was also assigned to me. With Prince Charles I 
had, previously to this period, lived two years, during 
which time he had kept entirely private, not seeing any 
one whatever, it being in the reign of the preceding pope, 
who had refused to acknowledge the title he assumed. 
In his retired life Prince Charles employed his hours in 
exercise and music, of which he was remarkably fond. I 
usually remained alone with him every evening, the Prince 
playing the violoncello, and I the harpsichord, also com- 
posing together little pieces of music ; yet these tete-a-tetes 
were of a sombre cast. The apartment in which we sat was 
hung with old red damask, with two candles only, and on 
the table a pair of loaded pistols (instruments not at all con- 
genial to my fancy), which he would often take up, examine, 
and again replace on the table; yet the manners of this 
Prince were always mild, affable, and pleasing. 7 In Sep- 
tember 1787, in the prospect of an early dissolution, Charles 
legitimated, by a deed recorded in the parliament of Paris, 
his natural daughter, created her Duchess of Albany, and 
constituted her his sole heir. 1 He latterly lived constantly 
at Florence, in a palace in the Via Bastino, which belonged 
in 1818 to the Duchess San Clemente, when the Scottish 
gentleman who communicates this circumstance temporarily 
occupied it — the rooms still bearing at that time many of 
the crowns, mottoes, and devices with which it had been 
decorated to suit its former inhabitant. On the 30th of 
January 1788, 2 Charles Stuart sank under an attack of palsy 
and apoplexy, expiring in the arms of his faithful attendant 
Mr Nairn, son of the attainted Lord Nairn. His death 
occasioned a parag-raph in the papers, but made little noise in 
the general world. In Scotland, however, where his name 
was associated with romantic achievement and historical 
recollections, there were still a few faithful hearts to bleed at 
the intelligence that this last of a lofty line was no more. Sir 
Walter Scott recollected a gentleman named Stuart, a friend 
of his father's family, calling one day in mourning, when, 

1 The Duchess of Albany was the Prince's daughter "by Miss Walkingshaw. 
She is said to have received an excellent education, and to have been an 
elegant and amiable woman. It is also said that Charles long refused to legi- 
timate her, and that she was for a long time supported by the Cardinal York, 
who gave her 6000 crowns per annum. She died in 1789, of an abscess in her 
side, the consequence of a fall from a horse, being then about forty years of 
age. 

2 The 31st was the date given out at the time ; but Lord Mahon ascertained 
that the 30th was the true date. His attendants appear to have practised a 
small deception, to avoid raising any feeling among the remnant of the party 
respecting his dying on a day deemed fatal to the House of Stuart. 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 431 

being" asked if he had suffered any family loss, he answered, 
'My poor Chief! 7 — a brief answer, but sufficient for those to 
whom it was addressed. Charles was buried with due cere- 
mony in the cathedral of Frescati, where his brother resided. 1 

1 Henry Stuart, Cardinal de York, was not a favourite with the Jacobites 
during his middle life, probably on account solely of his having accepted 
honours in the Romish church. His character in latter life appeared that of 
a mild and inoffensive man. In 1784, when Charles was believed to be dying, 
Cardinal York presented to the pope, the foreign minister at Rome, and 
others, a paper declaring the title which he should have to the British crown, 
in the event of his brother's decease. On the death of his brother in 1788, he 
took no other steps than to cause this declaration to be read, and to strike a 
medal bearing his name as * Henricus IX. Angliag Rex,' with the addition 
' Dei gratia, sed non voluntate hominum.' He was Bishop of Frescati, and 
had two rich livings in France, the abbeys of Anchin and St Amand, besides 
a considerable pension from Spain. The abbeys were lost to him at the time 
of the French Revolution. On the successful invasion of Italy by Bonaparte, 
his revenues as cardinal and bishop were also lost, and about the same time he 
appears to have been deprived of his Spanish pension. To aid the pope in 
making up the sum required by the French general, the cardinal disposed of 
his family jewels, including a ruby, esteemed the largest and most perfect 
known, and valued at £50,000. In the reduced state in which he was now left, 
he remained in retirement at his villa near Rome till 1708, when the revolu- 
tionary troops attacked and plundered his palace, and forced him to fly for his 
life. He went first to Padua, and afterwards to Venice, supporting himself by 
the sale of a small quantity of silver plate, which was soon exhausted, and he 
was then quite destitute. Some time after, Sir John Hippesley Coxe, who had 
been acquainted with Cardinal Borgia in Italy, received from that prelate an 
account of the condition of the unfortunate Cardinal York. This he com- 
municated to Mr Andrew Stuart, who drew up a memorial of the case, which 
was carried by Mr Secretary Dundas to the throne. George III. immediately 
ordered the Earl of Minto, then ambassador at Vienna, to offer the cardinal, 
in the most delicate terms possible, a pension of £4000 per annum. The earl, 
in a letter of February 9, 1800, dated from Vienna, thus addressed the object 
of the royal bounty : — • I have received the orders of his majesty the king of 
Great Britain to remit to your eminence the sum of £2000, and to assure your 
eminence that, in accepting this mark of the interest and esteem of his 
majesty, you will give him sensible pleasure. I am at the same time ordered 
to acquaint your eminence with his majesty's intention to transmit a similar 
sum in the month of July, if the circumstances remain such that your emi- 
nence continues disposed to accept it. ... In executing the orders of the 
king my master, your eminence will do me the justice to believe that I am 
deeply sensible of the honour of being the organ of the noble and touching 
sentiments with which his majesty has condescended to charge me, and which 
have been inspired into him on the one hand by his own virtues, and on the 
other by the eminent qualities of the august person in whom he wishes to 
repair, as far as possible, the disasters into which the universal scourge of our 
times has dragged, in a special manner, all who are most worthy of venera- 
tion and respect.' It is not unworthy of remark, that Charles and his brother 
Henry had a legal claim on the English government for the arrears of the 
parliamentary settlement made upon their grandmother, the queen-consort 
of James II. Charles had empowered his natural daughter to take some steps 
respecting this claim, and the good offices of Loivis XVI. were sought, for the 
purpose of representing the case to the British sovereign. Louis declined the 
task, remarking, with little anticipation of the fate of his own race, ' C'est 
une famiUe malheureuse; cfont je ne veux plus entendre parler.' 

The cardinal returned in 1801 to Rome, where he continued to enjoy the 
pension till his death in June 1807- He bequeathed to the Prince of Wales 



432 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

An urn containing his heart was deposited in the same church, 
inscribed with a few expressive lines by the Abbate Felice. 
A Scottish periodical work soon after presented the following 1 
lines as a proposed epitaph for his monument at Rome : — 

' Remote from Britain, in this foreign shrine, 
Ends the last hope of Stuart's ancient line — 
Reflection must excite the generous tear, 
And royalty, secure, will learn to fear. 
Oh ye of Britain's isle — no more unjust, 
Your hearts acknowledge here your Charles' dust. 
The virtuous in the tomh their rights maintain ; 
Alive his virtues challenged them in vain.' 

Many whose destiny has never subjected them to severe 
trials, will call the habits of this unhappy Prince a proof 
that he never possessed a magnanimous character, as he 
must have otherwise scorned so wretched a solacement for 
his misfortunes. Let these persons pray that they may 
never be reduced to analogous circumstances, or placed in 
similar temptations. To be born with disputable preten- 
sions is one of the greatest of misfortunes. Even in the 
middle walks of life, how often do we see industry, worth, 
and ability wrecked in their course, in consequence of the 
inheritation of some claims of property, which the law can-, 
not be brought to sanction till it has worn out all that could 
have enjoyed the boon ! How much severer the calamity 
of being born to the prospect of the highest object of human 
ambition — ever in view, and ever denied — to be born, in 
short, as Cardinal York expressed it, a king by the grace 
of God, but not by the will of man ! It has always appeared 
to me that, in the case of Prince Charles Edward, the agony 
of hope deferred and severe disappointment, and the degra- 
dations ultimately put upon him by individuals who, by 
birth, were no more than his equals, wore out a spirit origi- 
nally vigorous, and from which, in happier circumstances, 
good fruits might have been expected. 

The subsequent history of a few of the more remarkable 
individuals who had been concerned in the affair of 1745, 
and survived it, may here be given. 

The Duke of Perth died on the 11th of May 1746, in his 
voyage to France, his constitution having been completely 
worn out by about three weeks of skulking in the High- 
lands. His brother, Lord John Drummond, made his 
escape in the same vessel, and died next year in the French 

the order of the garter which belonged to his ancestor Charles I., and a ring 
which had been anciently worn by the kings of Scotland at their coronation. 
The Prince afterwards caused a monument to be raised to the memory of the 
old chevalier and his two sons in St Peter's at Rome. 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 433 

service at Bergen-op-zoom. Two elegantly-expressed Latin 
epitaphs for these two unfortunate noblemen, as inscribed 
in the chapel of the English nuns at Antwerp, and narrat- 
ing the above circumstances, are copied in the Rev. Mr 
Forbes's papers. 1 

Lord George Murray, after a long concealment in the 
Highlands, got on board a vessel in the Firth of Forth, and 
obtained a passage to Holland. The reader has seen the ill 
success of an attempt he made to see the Prince at Paris. 
The justice denied to him by Charles, and by many other 
individuals who had been associated with him in the late 
enterprise, was done to him by the old chevalier, who gave 
him an apartment in his palace, and treated him with much 
distinction. Lord George, under the assumed name of De 
Valignie, wrote a letter to Mr Hamilton of Bangour, dated 
Emerich, August 5, 1749, giving an account of the last few 
days of the campaign of 1745. He also composed a com- 
plete memoir of the campaign, which was published in the 
' Jacobite Memoirs/ 1834. Lord George died at Meden- 
blinck, in Holland, in 1760. On the death of James, second 
Duke of Atholl, in 1764, John, the eldest son of Lord George, 
who had married the only daughter and child of the late 
duke, would have succeeded to the title in course of law, 
but for the attainder of his father. A petition to the 
king, on which the House of Lords gave a favourable re- 
port, overcame the objection, and the lineal posterity of 
Lord George have accordingly enjoyed, since 1764, this 
princely name, and all the great demesnes connected with it. 

Young Locheil obtained, as we have seen, a regiment in 
the French service. He did not, however, enjoy this long ; 
for while on duty at Borgue, he was carried off by an in- 
flammation of the brain, October 26, 1748. The death of this 
amiable and truly respectable man was bewailed by both 
parties. In the Scots Magazine of the time, there was 
inserted a very honourable poetical tribute to his memory, 
evidently the composition of one who did not sympathise 
in his political opinions : it ends with the singular thought, 
that the gentle Locheil is now c a Whig in heaven.' The 
elder Locheil died in the same year. The territories of the 
family were restored to it in 1784, in consequence of an act 

1 I mention this circumstance as an addition to the proof that the Duke of 
Perth really died at sea in May 1746, this fact having of late years heen chal- 
lenged by a claimant of the Perth titles and estates, who asserts that the 
duke did not embark for France, but, withdrawing to an obscure place in the 
county of Durham, there sank into the condition of a shoemaker, married a 
humble woman, and died in 1782, after becoming the father of several chil- 
dren, the eldest of whom was father to the claimant. 
VOL. V. 2 B 



v. 



434 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

then passed for giving* back the forfeited estates to the heirs, 
under certain restrictions. 

Macpherson of Cluny remained in hiding on what had 
been his estate for nine years after the insurrection, chiefly 
residing in a cave near the site of his destroyed house, and 
supported by his faithful adherents. He had the charge of 
the large sum of money which had been secreted in the 
neighbourhood of Loch Arkaig, and probably kept himself 
in readiness, on a fitting occasion, once more to appear in 
arms with his clan for the House of Stuart. Cluny with- 
drew to France in 1755, and died there in the ensuing year. 
His estate, which also was restored to his family, is now 
enjoyed by his grandson. 

Lord Ogilvie rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in 
the French service. In 1778 he procured from George III. 
a free pardon and reversal of his attainder, and was there- 
after enabled to live upon his family estates in Scotland, 
where he died in 1803, at the age of seventy-nine. His 
lady, who had been actively concerned in raising men for 
the enterprise, and who accompanied her husband on the 
expedition to England, was taken prisoner after the battle 
of Culloden, and imprisoned in Edinburgh castle, whence 
she escaped in the November following. Having made her 
way to France, she died there in 1757, at the age of thirty- 
three. It would appear that Lord and Lady Ogilvie were 
each only about twenty years of age when they entered 
upon the campaign of 1745. It may be mentioned, to the 
honour of Lord Ogilvie, that after the death of Louis XVL, 
he refused any longer to draw his pension as a French 
officer, and even declined to accept its arrears when these 
were offered by Bonaparte. 

Sir James Steuart, being' in France at the time of the 
battle of Culloden, escaped the dangers which beset so many 
of his friends, but, excepted from the act of indemnity, 
he could not return to his native country. For eighteen 
years he resided abroad with his wife, and during that 
time, turning his mind to the subject of finance, became 
one of the most accomplished political economists of his day. 
Being pardoned and restored to his property in 1763, he 
published in England, four years thereafter, 6 An Inquiry 
into the Principles of Political Economy/ which was 
followed by several smaller works. Sir James died at Colt- 
ness in 1780. 

Mr Hamilton of Bangour, after the battle of Culloden, 
skulked for some time in the Highlands, and then escaped 
to France. By the intercession of a number of powerful 



SUBSEQUENT LIFE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 435 

friends, he soon obtained a pardon, and returned home; 
but his constitution being irremediably shattered by the 
hardships he had suffered in hiding-, he died of a slow con- 
sumption at Lyons in 1754. Some of the poetry of this 
gentleman retains popularity, and his name can never be 
altogether forgotten while that of Wordsworth exists, for 
it was in consequence of a ballad of Bangour's that the 
great bard of the lakes wrote his various poems on Yarrow. 
Sir Alexander Macdonald died in 1747, but the Laird of 
Macleod survived till 1772, an object of general dislike in 
the Highlands, not so much on account of his apostacy 
from the Stuart cause, as for the active part he was believed 
to have taken in the attempts to seize the fugitive Prince. 
Prosperity did not smile upon him, and when he died, he 
left his estate almost hopelessly incumbered. The fortunes 
of the Siol Tormod were, however, redeemed by his son, the 
brave, prudent, and generous General Macleod — the man 
described by Burns as 

' a chieftain worth gowd, 

Though bred amang mountains of snaw.' 

Mr Murray of Broughton, being taken into custody at 
Polmod in Peeblesshire, and removed to London, entered into 
an arrangement with government to give information and 
evidence, for the purpose of saving his own life. His 
evidence was the means of destroying Lord Lovat ; but the 
information he gave against the Duke of Beaufort, Sir 
Watkyn William Wynne, and other English Jacobites, was 
of no avail, for want of the second witness required in Eng- 
lish law. After this dismal surrender of honour, the secretary 
dragged out a wretched life upon a pension of £200 a-year. 
On the death of his brother, Sir Charles Murray of Stan- 
hope, baronet, he assumed the family title, and died in 
December 1777, leaving three sons, David, Robert, and 
Thomas, the eldest of whom, an officer in the navy, took 
up the title after his death. The secretary employed his 
leisure in his latter days in writing a memoir of the trans- 
actions of 1745, including a very minute account of the 
negotiations and other circumstances which preceded it, and 
in which he had himself been much concerned. 1 

Dr Archibald Cameron escaped to France in the same 
vessel with the Prince, to whom he had been of important 
service during his wanderings. A letter of Glengarry to 
the old chevalier's secretary, Mr Edgar, of date ( Boulogne- 
sur-mer, 16th January, 1750/ and extant in the Stuart 

1 This memoir, I "believe, exists in manuscript in the possession of William 
H. Murray, Esq. of the Theatre-Royal, Edinburgh. 



436 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745-6. 

Papers, gives an account of a visit which Dr Cameron had 
then recently paid to the Highlands ; when he gave out 
that all might shift for themselves, as the king and Prince 
had given up hopes of restoration. The letter further states 
that Dr Cameron took into his possession six thousand 
louis-d'ors, out of the large sum which he had assisted to 
conceal near Loch Arkaig ; Cluny Macpherson being unable 
to prevent his doing so, though he obliged the doctor to give 
a receipt for the sum. With this money, it was said, Dr 
Cameron designed to enter into a mercantile copartnery at 
Dunkirk. In a letter of Lochgarry (cousin of Glengarry) 
to Prince Charles, dated at Paris, June 22, 1750, the writer 
relates that he had lately been in Scotland, and saw Cluny, 
who gave him an account of the money left in his charge, 
much of which had been * torn from him/ so that the sum 
now in his hands was only sixteen thousand louis. Loch- 
garry expresses an anxious wish to be commissioned with 
Dr Cameron to go to Scotland and bring over the remain- 
ing sum. It is scarcely possible to make out from these 
notices any clear idea of Dr Cameron's procedure, more 
especially as we afterwards find his widow communicating 
intelligence which had reached her of a proposal having 
been made by Glengarry to sell himself to the government 
as an informer. It is, however, certain that Dr Cameron 
revisited Scotland in 1753, and was then taken prisoner in 
the house of Stewart of Glenbuckie, by a party of soldiers 
from the garrison of Inversnaid. Being carried to London, 
and there arraigned upon the act of attainder, in which his 
name was included, he was sentenced to die the death of a 
traitor. His wife, then residing with seven children at 
Lisle in Flanders, came to London, and presented petitions 
in his behalf, but without avail. He was executed on the 
7th of June, conducting himself on the occasion with a 
degree of firmness and cheerfulness scarcely less than that 
manifested by Balmerino. 1 The government was greatly 
blamed for this act of severity, which then appeared need- 
less ; but it is probable that they had secret information 
of certain dangerous traffickings which the agents of the 
House of Stuart were still carrying on in the Highlands, 
and acted under the belief that the sacrifice of Dr Cameron 
was necessary to prevent further attempts on the throne. 

1 In the burial register of the old chapel of the Savoy occurs the following 
entry :— ' 1753, Dr Archd. Cameron, drawn on a sledge from the Tower, and 
executed at Tyburn for high treason, on Thursday the 7th June, and buried 
as above in the chancel vault. Vault fee not paid, J. W.' This entry being 
discovered a few years ago, a few gentlemen combined to put up a small 
tablet to Dr Cameron near the supposed site of his sepulture. 



APPENDIX. 



ACCOUNT OF CHARGE AND DISCHARGE, BY MR MUR- 
RAY OP BROUGHTON, RESPECTING SUMS OF THE 
PRINCE'S MONEY IN HIS POSSESSION AFTER THE 
BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 1 

CHARGE. 

Received from Sir Thomas Sherridan in the wood upon the side 
of Locharkik, opposite to a place called Callich, about ten days 
after the battle of Culloden, 1000 guineas, . . £1,050 

From Do. more, and, so far as Mr Murray can remember, 
at the same time with the above, in Spainish coin, 700 
pistoles, valued at 17s. 6d. each, . . . . 612 10 

Six casks of French gold landed at Burradale, containing 
louis-d'ores, 35,000 

Mr M. thinking it unreasonable that the louis should be 
given at the value of 20 shillings, as formerly, paid 
away about 2250 of them as guineas, . . . . 112 10 

From a French officer who had landed upon the East 

Coast with 2000 guineas, 1,000 

N. B. This French officer was charged with 2000 guineas, 
but said he had 1000 taken from him as he passed 
thro' the Mackenzies' country, and gave in an ac- 
count of deductions from the other thousand ; but as 
Mr M. cannot charge his memory with the extent of 
the sum, he has charged himself with one thousand 
pounds, tho' he still thinks he did not receive quite 

so much. ■ 

Total charge, . £37,775 



1 Note in the handwriting of Bishop Forbes. — * N. B. This is a rare and 
curious paper, taken from the handwriting of John Murray of Broughton, 
Esq., Secretary to C. P. R., heing charge and discharge of money matters 
upon, and by, the said Mr Murray.' 



438 



APPENDIX. 



DISCHARGE. 



VOUCHERS. 



1. This article may be vouched by Mr M'Donald of Clanronald, 
younger, Mr Stewart of Ardsheill, Mr Cammeron of Torcastle, Doctor 
Cameron, Charles Stewart, one of Mr Murray's clerks, and by all 
the surviving people of Lochaber, Morar, Knoydart, Ariseg, and 
Moydart. 

1. It being judged proper to give some money toward the sup- 
port of the wounded and the widows of those who died at 
Culloden, it was agreed to give half a guinea to the former, 
and a guinea to each of the latter ; and according to the lists 
given in by those who had an opportunity, the sum amounted 
to 500 lowis, valued as guineas, . . . £525 

2. This sum was paid by Charles Stuart, in presence of 
L — d Lovit, Locheil, Clanronald younger, M'Leod your, 
of Neuck, Dod. Cameron, M'Donald, nephew to Cappoch, 
Mackinnon, Barisdale, Lochgary, Glenbucket, Major 
Kennedy, and Captn. Alexr. M'Nabb, with some others. 

2. At a meeting at a place called Callich, upon the 
side of Locharkik, where it was proposed to raise 
a body of men to continue the war. To enable 
the several commanders to make their compli- 
ments, there was distributed among them 600 

lowis, valued as guineas, ... . 630 

3. and 4. This gentleman is still alive, and Mr. M. is 
ready to believe is a person of veracity, and will acknow- 
ledge it. 

3. To the Laird of M'Kinnan, the same day and place, 40 

4. Sent by do. to M'Leod of Raza, and M'Donald 
yor. of Scotus, being all that remained of the sum 

Mr M. then had carried with him, ... 20 



£1,215 



5. This money was paid by Charles Stuart according 
to the accots. given in to him, except what was due to 
Barisdale's regiment, which Mr M. paid to Mr Colin 
M'Kenzie, his adjutant and paymaster, at Doctr. Came- 
ron's house in Glendesherie, and amounted to about 
£300. Mr M'Kenzie is now in London. 

5. To arrears due the troops, from the beginning of 
March till the 16th day of April inclusive, accord- 
ing to the musters of such regiments as had an' 
opportunity to give them in, about 1500 lowis at 
a guinea each, ....... 1,575 

Carryover, . £2,790 



APPENDIX. 439 

Brought over, . £2,790 

6. and 7. Mr M'Leod your, of Neuck may remember 
this. Raza having wrote with a little too much warmth, 
Mr M'Leod made an apology to Mr M. for him, and 
beg'd that it might not prevent him from sending a sup- 
ply ; and he will likewise remember that it was by his 
uncle Bernera that it was sent, and that Mr M. told him 
that he had given that gentleman £50. Mr M. is in- 
formed that Bernera is still alive. 

6. Sent from the wood on the side of Locharkik by 
M'Leod of Bernera to M'Leod of Raza, upon the 
receipt of a letter from him complaining that the 

former sum was too small, ..... 40 

7. To M'Leod of Bernera at the same time, . 50 

8. Mr M. paid Mrs Cameron above £40 for part of these 
cattle in the Doctrs. presence ; the others -he cannot call 
to mind, being country people. 

8. To cattle bought from Doctr. Cameron and others, 

to supply the men rendezvouzed at Glenmely, . 80 

9. Doctr. Cameron was the person Mr M. chiefly im- 
ployed to procure these horses, and some of them were 
bought from a tenant of Lochiells in G-lenpayen. 

9. To horses to carry the ammunition ingaged to be 
sent by Mr M'Donald yor. of Clanronald, from the 

coast of Ariseg to the head of Lochsheill, . 45 

10. Mr M. has no other voucher for this article save 
that the man is alive ; he was one of Col. Baggot's troop, 
and remarkably well-known all over the Highlands. 

10. To Evan Uisile Cameron on the side of Locharkik, 3 3 



£3,008 



11 and 12. As this gentleman is dead, Mr M. can bring 
no proof, as the confusion and hurry was very great at 
the time, tho' if he delivered the £20 to his father, he is 
still alive, and it will be a presumption of his having at 
the same time received the £100. 

11. To Mr M'Donald of Barisdale, at the head of 
Locharkik, on the evening we were obliged to 
disperse, 100 

12. To his father by him, 20 

13. This gentleman is now alive ; he received his 
money in a small cottage, in presence of Lochiell his 
nephew, Cammeron of Torcastle, and many others. 

13. To Mr Campbell of Ardslignish at the same time, 40 

14. Of this no proof can be brought, unless Sr. Stewart 
Threpland, who was so kind as to attend him, remembers 
that he had Spainish coin ; but the great intimacy that 

Carryover, . £3,168 3 



440 APPENDIX. 

Brought over, . £3,168 3 

alwise subsisted betwixt Locheil and Mr M. would seem 
to confirm it ; and what makes him remember it the 
better, was his chiding him for being too easy to give 
money to whoever asked it ; and that by giving him 
that sum, he had but a few remaining pistoles in his own 
pocket. 

14. To Cameron of Lochiel the same evening in 
Spainish gold, he bejng then on horseback, ready 
to set out, and told Mr M. that he had not one 
farthing left, having given all among his own people, 

about 40 

15. It is impossible to give any other proof of this 
charge than that everybody present can say how much 
Mr M. was harassed at that time by demands, insomuch 
that he was glad to get away, and to send the money 
that remained in casks along with Lochiel for protection. 

15. To several people at the same time and place in 

small sums, about 100 

16. Mr M'Leod will remember that it was with diffi- 
culty Mr M. could prevail upon him to take it, he saying 
that he had got enough of his own. 

16. To Mr Alexr. M'Leod yor. of Neuck that evening, 50 

£3,358 3 

17. This article Major Kennedy will remember to have 
seen Mr M. pay in Morar, upon the receipt of a letter 
and message from his lordship, when we were together 
with Clanronald on our way to meet Mr Allan M'Donald, 
a churchman, and M'Leod, going to the Isle of Uist. 

17. To Lord Lovat, to pay his guard, ... 20 

18. Major Kennedy and Charles Stewart made this 
journey with Mr Murray. 

18. To expences and small gratuitys in passing^thro' 
Moydart and Arrisaig, with a view to have'gone 

over to the Isle of Uist to the Prince, ... 10 

19. This gentleman is now in Scotland. 

19. To Cameron of Dungallon in Gleneurich, . 100 

20. There were there several of the Cameron officers 
all in want of money, to whom Mr M. gave each a small 
sum. 

20. To several officers, and others of the same name, 

and at the same place, about .... 50 

21. This gentleman wrote a letter to Mr M., saying that 
he had got intelligence from one M'Kenzie that a body 

Carry over, . £3,538 3 



APPENDIX. 441 

Brought over, . £3,538 3 

of 300 French were landed in the north near to Caith- 
ness, and begging him to prevail with Lochiell to raise 
some men and march north, but the intelligence was 
laugh'd at. 

2h To some M'Donalds who were sent with a letter 

from Barrisdale, 5 5 

22. This Cameron of Torcastle may remember, he being 
present when Cameron came to ask Lochiell's advice 
about his surrendering to Genl. Campbell. 

22. To Donald Moir Cameron, adjutant to Lochiel's 
regiment, in a wood upon the side of Lochsheill, 5 5 

23. There were likewise in company Torcastle and his 
son, and Mr M. imagines none of the surviving gentlemen 
can have forgot it. 

23. To guides, &c, when Locheill, Major Kennedy, 
Sir David Murray, Sir Stewart Threpland, and 

others, went over to Appin, . . . . 10 

£3,558 13 

24 and 25. This gentleman is living, and Mr M. flatters 
himself will be ready to acknowledge it. 

24. To Mr Stewart of Ardsheil, in the wood above 
Ballaheulish, where Locheill, Sir Stewart Threp- 
land, Sir David Murray, Major Kennedy, &c. were 

with him for some days, 100 

25. To him as arrears due to his regiment till then 

not paid, Mr M. thinks more than . . . 100 

26. This will not admit of a voucher, but it is reason- 
able to believe that Mr M. could give them no less. 

26. To the boatmen who carried us over into Appin, 5 

27. The major is still living ; he seem'd very sensible 
of the favour, and said it was just one year's pay. 

27. To Major Kennedy, in the wood of Ballaheulish, 
when he went to • surrender himself at Fort- 
William, 150 

28 and 29. Ardsheil will be able to call both these 
articles to mind, having applyed to him to employ 
people to look for it, and when found, he sent his servant 
with it. 

28. To recovering a pocket-book, dropt by Mr M. in 

the above-mentioned wood, 5 

29. To the express, one Donald Stewart, a servant 
of ArdsheiPs, who was sent with the pocket-book 

to Glenlyon, . 3 3 

Carryover, . £3,921 16 



442 APPENDIX. 

Brought over, . £3,921 16 

30. This gentleman is now in Scotland. Mr M. is only 
doubtfull whether it was £150 or only 100 louis-dores, 
but thinks it was 100 louis's & 50 guineas ; if he has over- 
charged him, he hopes it will be forgiven, as it is not 
done with a view to exhaust the sum. 

30. To Sir Stewart Threpland, in the wood near to 
Kinlochleven, 150 

31. Mr Cameron cannot have forgot this, for M. M. 
insisted upon his conveying of it to his wife, and pro- 
bably Sir Stewart Threpland, then present, may remem- 
ber the conversation. 

31. To Doctr. Cameron at the same time and place, 100 

32. This sum was given at the same time with the two 
former, it having been agreed upon betwixt Locheill and 
Mr M. that he M. should go to Glenlyon, where he ex- 
pected to meet his sister Mrs M'Dougal, and send her 
back to Edinburgh to procure a ship for them ; and in 
case she did not come, he was to proceed himself south 
to procure one and bring her to the east coast of FyfFe, 
it being then reported that the P. was sailed in a meal 
ship from the island of Uist for France. This Sir Stewart 
Threpland and Doctr. Cameron cannot have forgot, there 
being no access at that time to raise any of the money 
that was buried. 

32. To Cameron of Lochiell, at the same place, to 
enable him to supply the P , in case of his re- 
turning to the main land — 

Louis, 1,000 

Guineas, 500, 525 

33. This article may easily be imagined. "We were 
seven in company, and obliged to send out scouts every 
night, the enemy being on all quarters. 

33. To expences when in Rannoch and Glenlyon, to- 
gether with Dr Cameron and Dr. Murray, . 20 

£5,716 16 

34. This gentleman is now in Scotland. He met Mr M. 
in Rannoch, and conducted him south so far as Monteith. 
Mr M. believes him to be a man of candor and veracity, 
and that he will acknowledge it. 

34. To Alexander M'Nabb, captain in Kappoch's 
regiment, as arrears due his company, . 30 

N. B. It is to be observed that Capt. M'Nabb was no 
follower of Kappoch's, but brought his company 
from Brodalbin. So was not included in the ar- 
rears paid to Kappoch regmt. 

Carry over, . £5,746 16 



APPENDIX. 443 

Brought over, . £5,746 16 

35. Mr M. gave this money to Mrs Menzies of Culdairs 
in her own house, she having informed him of their being 
in that country. 

35. To Mr Norval Hume and other three gentlemen 

then skulking in Glenlyon, 25 

36. This money was given to him upon the south side 
of Glenlyon, among the rocks — where Sir D. Murray, Dr 
Cameron, Mr John Cameron the minister, now an officer 
in Lord Ogilvie's regiment, and M. M., had sleept that 
night — to buy whiskie and snuff for Lochiell, with a fair 
wig, and other things to disguise Mr M. when he went 
south. 

36. To John M'Naughton to purchase necessarys 

when in Glenlyon, 5 5 

37. This must alone hang upon her and Mr M.'s asser- 
tion. 

37. To Mrs Macdougal to carry her south, . 42 

38. This money Mr M. gave her at her own house of M., 
to be taken care of by her husband, and two days after 
he received a message by his former servant, Robert 
Buchannan, that the money was buried in the garden. 
The pistols, tho Mr M.'s property, and often demanded, 
have always been refused. 

38. Deposited in Mrs Menzies of Culdairs's hands 

louis-dores, 3500 

guineas 351, 368 11 



£9,687 12 



Likewise a pair of pistols inlaid with gold, which 
Mr M. had given him by the P e. 

39. This money Mr M. gave in Brodalbine, Capt. M'Nab 
being present. 

39. To Robert Buchanan, when he brought the ac- 
count of the moneys being buried, ... 55 

40. This affair is too remarkable to have escaped the 
memory of any present. A court-martial having sit 
upon two men who were suspected, and the circum- 
stances appearing so strong, that the members were 
ready to condemn them, about 1 1 o'clock at night, Mr 
Harrison came to Mr M., then in bed in the next room, 
and told him that he had discovered the cask, and 
would deliver it next morning. Mr M. desired the court- 
martial to break up, and set the men at liberty. Next 
day there was a meeting about it, when Mr Harrison 
refused to name the persons, as the discovery had been 
made to him in confession. But the thing being strongly 

Carryover, . £9,692 17 



444 APPENDIX. 

Brought over, . £9,692 17 

insisted on, Bishop M'Donald agreed that he should de- 
scribe them, which, together with other circumstances, 

made it plain that D 1 and this Irishman were the 

persons concerned. There were present at this meeting 
at the foot of Lochmorar, Bishop M'Donald, Mr Har- 
rison, M'Donald of Clan Ronald yor., Alexander M'Leod 
of Neuck yor., Barrisdale, Major Kennedy, M'Donald yor. 
of Seotus, and several others." 

N.B. — Mr M. is informed that the above-named D 1 

is now an officer in Lord Ogilvie's regiment. 
40. When the French ships were attacked at Burra- 
dale, the money was landed, and secreted in a 
wood, lest the enemy had prevailed and made a 
descent, and whilst it was there, one of the casks 
was carried off by an Irishman, whose name Mr 

M. has forgot, and one D 1, a Lancashire man, 

now an officer abroad ; but, finding that they 

could not convey away the whole, D 1 asked 

one Harrison, a churchman, if he would hear his 
own companion's confession, which Harrison hav- 
ing agreed to, the Irishman carried him in to the 
wood, and discovered the cask, but at the same 
time broke it open, and took one bag, which, upon 
reckoning the whole sum in the wood upon the 
side of Locharkik, was found to have contained 
700 louis-d'ores, 700 



£10,392 17 



41. This sum of 15,000 louis-dores, 1000 in each bag, 
counted over exactly, was divided into three parcels, 
5000 in each, one parcel put under a rock in a small 
rivulet, the other two parcels in the ground at a little 
distance, the holes made and the money deposited by 
Sir Stewart Threpland, 1 Mr Alexander M'Leod yor. of 
Neuck, Major Kennedy, and Doctor Cameron. 



Carry over, . £10,392 17 

1 This gentleman, so frequently mentioned in Mr Murray's paper, and also 
alluded to in several parts of the preceding narrative, was a younger brother 
of the young gentleman slain in the pursuit at Preston, both being the chil- 
dren of Sir David Threipland, Bart., of Fingask, in Perthshire. Sir David, 
who had been engaged in the insurrection of 1715-16, when he entertained 
the old chevalier for a night in his house, was, in 1745, only the tenant of 
estates which had once been his property. Being then old and infirm, he 
was unable to go out, but he sent to the field all his sons who were then of >an 
age to bear arms. After the battle of Culloden. Stewart Threipland remained 
in company with Locheil, to whom, in his then woimded condition, he was 
of considerable service, having been bred to the medical profession. An anec- 
dote, reflecting the highest credit on his benevolence, is related in a note at 
page 364. Some time in the month of July he left Locheil in his concealment, 
and went to Edinburgh in the disguise of a Presbyterian probationer. From 
the Scottish he made his way to the English capital, in the company of Mr 
William Gordon, a bookseller of good repute in those days, whose apprentice 



APPENDIX. 445 

Brought over, . £10,392 17 

41. Buried near to the head of Locharkik, opposite 

to Callich, lowis-dores, 15,000 

42. This money was buried in two parcels, 6000 in each, 
all in bags of 1000 each, the night before we were obliged 
to retire from Lochiell's house of Achnacarry, by Doctor 
Cameron and Mr Alexander M'Leod, who carried it upon 
their shoulders from the above-mentioned house. 

42. Buried near the foot of the above-mentioned 

lake, lowis-d'ores, 12,000 

43. About 90 guineas of this sum he had in his pocket 
when he was taken. 

43. Mr M. carried in his pocket from Glenlyon, . 110 10 

44. Mr M. bought this horse from a gentleman in Bal- 
whidder, to carry him south, in presence of Capt. M'Nab 
and Murray, brother to the Laird of Glencairnock. 

44. To a horse, 5 5 



Total discharge, £37,508 12 

Total charge, . . . £37,775 

Balance, 266 8 

£37,775 £37,775 



he appeared to be. Afterwards he escaped abroad, where he remained a con- 
siderable time, living in intimacy with Mr Hamilton of Bangour, Sir James 
Steuart, and Mr Andrew Lnmisden. In time he found himself at liberty to 
return home and live in peace. Having an estate by his wife, he was enabled 
to succour many of the unfortunate men of his party— at one time he had 
no fewer than twenty depending upon him. Not long before the act of 1784, 
for restoring the forfeited estates, Sir Stewart, as he was called by courtesy, 
bought back Fingask. The title of the family was formally restored in 1824, 
and is now enjoyed by his grandson, Sir Peter Murray Threipland of Fin- 
gask, Bart. 

It may here be not improper to introduce an anecdote connected with the 
birth of Sir Stewart Threipland, which appears highly characteristic of the 
Jacobite party. It is related in the language of the late Mr Moncrieff Threip- 
land of Middleton, younger son of Sir Stewart. ' * * When the troops of the 
government had possession of Fingask in 1716, and some of the soldiers were 
quartered in the house, the good lady [Sir David's lady] became alarmingly 
ill ; and in the midst of much anxiety and care — her husband and sons at a 
distance — uncertain of their fate, and the cause in which they were embarked 
giving way on every side — my father was born. It was thought that, under 
all the distressing circumstances of her situation, she could not survive, and 
a clergyman of the Episcopal church in Perth was sent for privately (the 
clergy of that persuasion being marked men at that period, as known adhe- 
rents of the Jacobite cause). He, having administered the sacrament, pro- 
posed, as so favourable an opportunity might not occur again, to baptise the 
child. This suggestion, communicated in a whisper to the nurse, and others 
who were in attendance, was at once assented to by them ; but the difficulty 
consisted in knowing by what name the infant should be called, his father 
having left no directions, and his poor mother being thought much too weak 
to be consulted on the subject. The good lady, however, had heard a little 



446 APPENDIX. 

N. B. Mr. M. gave twenty guineas to his nephew, Sir David 
Murray, in Glenlyon ; but as he has since been informed that the 
young gentleman says he returned it, his pockets being tore, it is 
not charged. 

There was a small sum given to some few M'Leans at Glenmaly, 
but as Mr M. don't remember the exact sum, he has not charged it. 

There was a small sum given to Charles Stewart when sent from 
Appin to Morar, to procure intelligence of the Prince. 

And at the same time, some money given to a son of Cameron of 
Cluns, who left Appin together with Stewart, both paid in the wood 
above Balloheullish. 

A trifflle given to John Bain, Mr Murray's servant, when sent 
from Glenlyon to Lochiell. 

A small sum to John Cameron, uncle to John Cameron of Kin- 
lochleven, at the head of that lake. 

And Mr M. likewise thinks there was some money paid to the 
troops at Glenmaley ; but as they were few in number, the sum 
must have been inconsiderable. 

A trifflle to the boatmen who carried Lochiell, Sir Stewart Threp- 
land, Sir David Murray, Doctor Cameron, and Mr M. up Lochleven. 

Qn. 1. Has as honest an account been made of the 27,000 louis- 
dores ? 

2. Has the person to whose care it was committed applyed as 
little of it to his own use ? 

of what was passing near her bed, and drawing hack the curtain, she called 
out in a faint voice, "Stewart, Stewart!" This was enough, and by that 
name accordingly was my father christened before the clergyman left the 
house.' 

It may also be not unworthy of notice that this heroine was a member of 
the family of Smythe of Methven, and probably a descendant of the high- 
spirited lady who, in the reign of Charles II., took such bold measures to put 
down the conventicles in her neighbourhood. For some notice of that lady 
and her an ti- covenanting proceedings, see * Tales of a Grandfather.' 



END OF HISTORY OF REBELLION. 






Edinburgh : 
Printed by W. & R. Chambers. 



